Bravo
by paulinemcc
Summary: Having lost her badge, Gail Peck no longer has to worry about expectations. She does things her way now, and if 15 Division doesn't like it, well, they'll have to arrest her.
1. Chapter 1

**Bravo**

**Disclaimer: Own nothing yada, yada, yada.**

**Part 1**

Gail ignored the bodies dancing around her as she spotted her target, the tan brunette currently flirting with another woman at the bar. She checked the time and made her way out of the club leaving behind the pounding music.

It was with some relief that she climbed into the back seat of a blacked out SUV.

"Gut?" The driver asked.

Gail eyed the heavy set man from behind, then she yawned. "Ja." She replied. They were good, things were going to plan. "Just keep a lookout."

"Ja." He muttered.

Gail slouched along the back seat and pulled out her cell phone. She had a text from Chris. He'd given her the all clear. She sighed again and closed her eyes. "We're on for tomorrow."

The driver snorted but Gail ignored him.

"We go?" He said a few minutes later as he started the engine.

Gail shifted and looked out the windscreen. True enough the brunette and the other woman were outside the front door of the club trying to flag down a cab. They were holding hands and giggling together.

Gail watched and waited until the women had been picked up by a cab and her driver started to fidget nervously. She rolled her eyes. "Go." She told him and she was thrown into the back of her seat as he pulled the SUV out into the road and started tailing the cab.

She shook her head and laid back down, he'd let her know when the cab stopped and let the women out. Her night was going like the last few, she'd wait until after the woman's morning run and drive to work before she finally went home and got some sleep before meeting with her boss.

xxxxx

Walking up to her boss Gail glanced around the warehouse, there was at least a dozen guys all getting guns ready and packing ammo into bags. Everyone was dressed in dark clothes and there was an air of excitement all around.

"Are you ready?" He boss asked her as he looked up from counting out stacks of hundred dollar bills on the table in front of him.

Gail shrugged then glanced back over her shoulder to the rest of the room. "We look ready." She commented, her own gun and spare clips already fastened to the belt at her waist.

She got a raised eyebrow when she looked back to her boss. "We're good, Wolf." She told him. "My contact says there's no info on our shipment, we should be in and out in twenty. You have the money, they'll have our goods. Simple."

The older man sighed and signalled the armed man beside him to start bagging up the money.

"Things rarely go smoothly in this business Bravo." He informed her, as he took in the scar she had that ran from her right temple down through her right eyebrow. She must have been lucky to keep the sight in that eye. "As I'm sure you know, yes?"

Gail smirked. "Which is why I'll have the big guys with the guns with me." She told him with a chuckle. "Hey, we all gotta go sometime boss."

Wolf nodded and came around the table and put his arm across her shoulder. She had been part of his crew for almost a year now and she had proven herself to be a very valuable asset.

"You and the boys be careful out there, things have been too quiet." He told her quietly, it didn't pay to show doubt in this job, especially when you were the boss. "Make me look good tonight and the Boss might find something more useful for you to do."

"Yeah?" So far Gail had been used mostly as a grunt, doing the pick-ups and drops, babysitting for her boss, and collecting 'rent'. She was always backed up with one of the longer serving members of the crew but she knew she was being tested, she'd had to kill two drug dealers so far, but she was still eyed suspiciously by members. She was used to that and she didn't even take it personally given her history. They all knew who and what she was, she was lucky she hadn't got a bullet between the eyes the first time she had walked up to Wolf and demanded he give her work.

"Maybe." Wolf grinned at her leading them over to a quieter spot in the warehouse although his personal bodyguard followed closely behind them. Again Gail was used to that. "But I like you, so we will see."

Gail grinned. She was making progress with these people and tonight should seal her position among the rest of Wolf's crew.

"So, that other little project?" Wolf asked.

"She's clean." Gail said having followed the women for several weeks now. "She's new and she's made friends with certain people we're watching but, she's clean, got a trail all the way back to Vancouver. Family, school, her last job." She gave her boss a shrug. "She checks out."

Wolf nodded. "Well then good luck tonight, I shall wait for a call."

Gail stood there and watched him leave out the back of the warehouse. A few moments later someone else approached her. She turned her head and was met by the hulking presence of Dieter Schmidt. German name but the guy was all Canadian.

"Ready for this?" He asked softly.

Gail nodded and patted him on the shoulder. "You've got my back, I've got yours." She told him quietly.

"Let's get this done and both come home." He told her as the clasped forearms which had been a trademark of their friendship. Dieter hadn't been able to watch over her much when she had first joined the crew but in recent months he was a shadow whenever they went on a job.

"Too right, you owe me a damn beer!" Gail told him with a smile.

Dieter chuckled and they both walked over to the where the rest of the crew had started to gather.

"All right!" She yelled drawing eyes to her as she stepped forward, apart from Dieter and apart from the rest of the crew. "Listen up, I want this done quick and clean. They know we're coming, we know they're coming, we go, exchange and get the hell out." She told them, her eyes meeting every pair in front of her as she shifted to the calculating Ice Queen she had a reputation for being.

"No one raises their weapon without _my_ say-so, or unless your _being_ shot at. But you are not there to think, you are there to make me look good!" She told them with a wicked grin. "And if you make me look bad I will take my gun and shoot you!" She warned only to be met by sullen looks from the guys in front of her although she could hear Dieter chuckle behind her.

"Okay, well? Get moving!" She yelled again with a clap of her hands and then everyone moved, picking up the money bags and the weapons.

Dieter eased up beside Gail as the room emptied, they wouldn't be driving together tonight which he was apprehensive about. "Watch your back tonight, these guys would shoot you just as much as they'd shoot the Russians."

Gail gave a carefree shrug and felt for her weapons one last time then started walking for the cars.

xxxxx

Two hours later and they were pulling up to the docks under the darkest part of the night.

Gail's driver already had the direction to which bay they were due at. She looked around as they slowed to approach. There was several entrances and it made her a little nervous but Wolf had dealt with the Russians before and while he said they could be difficult they always delivered the goods paid for.

Which in theory meant Gail's job tonight should go very smoothly.

She wouldn't actually handle anything other than the talking and watch the exchange, she had three groups of guys with her, she was with the guys holding the money, Dieter was with the receiving team that would take their packages away via a boat that was waiting at the other side of the dock, and the gun men making sure everything remained secure while the talking and showboating took place.

"Here now." Muttered her driver as he pulled the SUV to a stop just in the entrance way of a hanger. She rolled her eyes wondering why these deals couldn't take place somewhere warmer.

She reached for the door handle. "You staying here?" She asked him.

"Ja."

"Keep the engine running." She told him and he nodded but kept his eyes forward to where a group of shadowy figures could be seen from the glow of his headlights.

Gail stepped out as other cars pulled up around her and she was soon walking among a heavily armed crew. It didn't exactly make her feel safer but it was a show of strength to the Russians, and a warning not to try anything stupid.

Gail put her hand on her 9mm in its unsecured holster, already having the safety off.

Her group continued forward as Dieters remained at the entrance.

"You are late." A voice sounded as Gail slowed as she neared the group.

Gail frowned and glanced at her watch. She was early. She gave the guy that had spoken, a tall dark haired man with aged skin and stubble on his chin, a curious look. He was wearing a suit but it wasn't as expensive as she thought someone leading this type of operation should be dressed in. It made her glace at the other men facing her, she could pick out the scrawny underfed packages she was here to purchase who were being held with their arms behind their backs. A look of terror and desperation in their eyes.

_Poor bastards. _She thought, but her gaze went by them easily enough and she found who she was looking for. A younger, well dressed, clean shaven man that was watching her very carefully, a man that had a second man standing practically in his back pocket. The positions reminded her of Wolf and his not so little bodyguard.

Gail winked at the man, then focus back to the guy who'd spoken to her. Apparently he wasn't done.

"And they send me a girl?" The guy scoffed and it made Gail roll her eyes.

Gail smirked and gave they guy a half shrug. "When you want it done right, you have to do it yourself."

The guy snorted.

Gail glanced around again. "Are we doing this or not, because my boss can deal with other groups that have promised better product."

That silenced everyone around her and the tension shot up.

The guy who'd been mouthing off so far stepped towards Gail, anger showing clearly on his face. "Is that so? You think to threaten us? I should shoot you now, how would your boss like that?" He said raking his eyes over her body. "Maybe I should just keep you, no? Give you proper work."

Gail grinned at him, and his confidence broke a little and she saw the quick glance he gave to the other guy, the guy Gail was sure was really in charge.

"30 seconds, then we're out." Gail told the silent man and glanced casually down at her watch.

There was nothing but silence from Gail's crew which she was almost proud of given she was coming close to walking out on this deal.

27

28

29

"I apologise."

The second man finally interrupted Gail's clock watching. She lifted her head and offered him a smile. "Can we continue then, I have better places to be."

The man nodded and the hulking men holding Gail's packages started towards her group. Gail signalled to the two members of her crew holding the money bags to start the exchange.

She watched as her men took hold of the people being handed over and signalled to her guys to get them loaded up with Dieter's men as her money was inspected.

She waited steadily until they gave their boss a nod of approval and zipped the bags up, handing them off to some other guys.

The boss stepped forward this time, walking over to Gail and holding out his hand.

Gail shook hands with him.

"Maybe we do business again?" He said with the hint of a smile.

"My boss will be in touch." Gail hadn't been joking when she'd threatened to use other people to get her boss what he wanted. For the right money you could get anything, and the Russians were only here because her boss had done previous trading with them.

Gail turned and started towards her vehicle, it was time to leave. Dieter and his team would have to check the packages and then her boss would let her know what the next step was. She had a couple of guys to tail the Russians until she got word from Dieter but that would take hours.

No matter, it wasn't like she slept much anyway.

"Let's go." She told her men but just as she was opening her car door all hell broke loose behind her.

"POLICE!"

"FREEZE!"

"GET YOUR HANDS UP"

"PUT YOUR WEAPONS DOWN!"

"POLICE!"

"DO IT NOW!"

Gail spun as her hand automatically drew her weapon as she crouched into as small a target as possible. The far entrance was flooded with police cars and vest wearing officers and detectives, all of them entering with guns pointed.

She'd been set up.

Her heart broke a little at the thought of Chris setting her up but as the first bullets started to fly all she could think was,

_I'm going to kill him!_

xxxxxx

**AN/**

Because I just can't help myself

:P


	2. Chapter 2

**Part 2**

Gail focused her attention on the figures spreading out at the far end of the hanger bay. It took her less than a heartbeat to recognise people she knew, this was a 15 operation which hammered another nail on Chris' coffin if she made it out of this.

Taking aim Gail squeezed her trigger in rapid succession, scoring two direct hits. As she watched Traci fall to the ground she took aim at the redheaded figure of her brother beside her. As Traci had fallen Steve turned, opening his chest area to her gun and as she let out another breath she fired two more times.

This time a return shot rang her ear as the bullet hit barely an inch into the panel work beside her head, but she calmly adjusted round in the direction of the shot and eyed the figure of Nick Collins. She didn't take as much care on her aiming this time, letting out a spread of five bullets all aimed at his abdomen.

He too went down.

She continued firing into vehicles, reloading with both of her spares before a tug came at the back of her hooded jacket before she could run out of bullets.

Just as her hand was going for her knife, she half turned, ready to deliver a fatal blow only to be faced with her driver Kurt.

"We go." He told her tugging at her again.

Gail nodded. It may have felt like half a life time but probably only a few minutes had actually past. She stood and opened her door just as Kurt rounded the car.

"Wait, wait!"

Gail turned to see members of the Russian gang quickly chasing after her men and their cars hoping for help to get away now that their own exit had been blocked by the police.

About to slam her door closed on them Gail spotted the bags each men running in her direction carried.

"Thank y-"

Just as the first guy touched the car door Gail shot him straight between the eyes, the second guy only had time to widen his eyes before he too was falling dead to the floor.

Kurt snorted and just as Gail clutched onto the bags, he pulled away and started driving off at speed.

"Watch it!" Gail snapped at him as she was almost thrown out of the car, scowling she threw both bags down and secured her door.

"What you do? Blood make mess my car!" He snapped back at her.

Gail snorted as the sound of gun shots were beginning to fade. "Yeah well, we just got our cash back so who gives a shit about some fucking blood stains?" Gail asked while flicking a bit of skull and brain matter off of her arm.

Kurt grunted.

The silence that followed as Kurt drove them to safety was almost unwelcome.

Gail knew that if her inside contact was the leak she was as good as dead, the fact that Dieter's group would have the packages and she was returning with the money would buy her nothing.

She knocked her head against the window beside her and then settled back to wait out the drive. Kurt wouldn't head straight back to Wolf's bar, the location of the meet up, he'd make sure they hadn't picked up a tail first.

A short time later Gail's cell started to ring. She looked at the caller ID showing it was Wolf.

Letting out a deep breath, and with a tremor in her hand, she answered the call.

xxxxxxx

Wolf eyed the people in his bar. Nearly twenty had gone on the job and while the six members of Dieter's team would not be due back for several more hours, there was only eight people including Bravo standing in front of him.

He walked up to the blonde whose eyes were lowered. "My office."

Gail followed just behind her boss' shadow, or Bear as she often referred to him, which had earned her a smile from the silent figure but she'd never heard him speak or Wolf say his name. Which was why she preferred to think of the guy as Wolf's shadow.

"This is not how I expected tonight to go Bravo." He told her as he rounded his desk to take his seat. Gail remained standing as Bear closed the door and stood behind her out of her sight line. "Explain it to me." He said calmly, even gesturing for her to sit down across from him.

Gail remained on her feet. "I got the all clear last night from my contact, we followed your plan to the letter, everything went perfect, the money was exchanged, Dieter had the packages taken away and then it all went to shit." She informed him succinctly.

Wolf lit up a cigar he'd pulled from one of his drawers. "And am I correct in thinking you have returned with my money?"

"Yes Boss." Gail kept it short, if she was going to get a bullet to the back of her head she wasn't going to waste time pleading and crying about it.

"I like that." He replied, he then nodded to Bear and she waited, but the door behind her opened and closed and she felt the presence of Wolf's bodyguard leave the room. "But didn't I tell you Bravo? It had been too quiet."

Gail frowned. "You were expecting this?"

Wolf made a gesture with his hand. "Something has not been right around here, and now we know why."

"Is my guy the leak?" She couldn't stop herself from asking. She hadn't picked up on anything but she didn't spend a lot of time with the rest of Wolf's crew. Mostly Dieter, Kurt, and a few of Wolf's front of house guys that weren't really part of this end of Wolf's business. "Because if he is, you gotta give him to me first." She insisted. "Then you can do whatever you want with me."

Wolf grinned. "You think I will shoot you for this?"

"I'd shot me for this!" Gail replied.

Wolf's laughter surprised her.

"I'm not going to shoot you, and please do not shoot yourself, it would leave me very short handed." He told her with some amusement.

"It's not my guy?" Gail repeated finally slumping into the chair beside her.

Just as Wolf was about to reply a knock came at his door.

"Come." He called and Gail turned to see Dieter and Bear enter the room.

"Fucking hell!" Gail leapt to her feet and reached for a heavily bleeding Dieter. "You've been shot!" She said as the blood centred on her friend's shoulder.

Dieter flinched as Gail touched a little too close to the wound.

Gail rolled her eyes and ripped his top to get a better look as she noticed the med kit in Bear's hand. She jerked on Dieter's arm until he moved to sit in the seat she'd just got up from. "Such a fucking wimp." She muttered as her hand automatically felt out the kit for the forceps she was looking for.

"This might hurt." She said with a grin before probing the wound and digging around until she snagged the bullet. She ignored his cry of pain and the way he gritted his teeth and moaned as she started to tug the bullet free from his shoulder. "Ta da!" She waved the blood soaked bit of metal in front of Dieter, smiling as it made him pale slightly.

She turned and eyed a downright entertained Wolf. "Got any Scotch?" She asked as she dropped the forceps with the bullet onto he boss' desk. She grinned when a bottle appeared, she reached over and opened it taking a healthy swallow before handing it over to her injured and disgruntled friend. "You should learn to duck in future." She said before going back to the kit and finding the needle and the synthetic thread, she took the alcohol back and splashed some over her hands before taking another drink and handing it back. "Don't move if you want this to look pretty."

Dieter snorted into the bottle as he started to feel the tugging at his skin.

"There." Gail said as she tied off the thread and cut it. She then smacked Dieter next to the wound.

"Ow!"

"Why the fuck do you have a gunshot wound when you were already out of the hanger when the cops arrived?" Gail demanded finally realising this couldn't have happened to her friend at the meet up with the Russians because Dieter's team had left first.

Wolf nodded to Dieter. "What she said."

Dieter sighed. "We got to the boat, loaded up and started off, we'd heard the gun fire in the distance so we went dark," Meaning they took to the water without lights and only the dim light of the sonar and gps systems to guide them in the darkness. "The next minute Marcus had one of the packages and a gun pointed to Daniel trying to get him to stop and switch the lights on." He said with a disgusted shake of his head. "The rest of the team were downstairs and I tried to talk him down but he fired and then a cop boat is coming at us, I shoot back at Marc, and then the others are coming up and shooting at the cops, I think we got them their boat idled but Marcus jumped with one of the packages, we all shot at them but…" He shrugged.

Wolf nodded thoughtfully. In the dark and without lights, finding anyone in the water would have been very near impossible. "And the package? Was it secured?"

Dieter knew he was being asked if the packages had been tied up and gagged during transport. He gave his boss a nod.

"Then good, even if there were any cops left on that boat our package would have been under quickly enough." Wolf didn't look happy though. He eyed Gail. "I want my missing package returned to me, it seems a shame to leave it when we have the others and my money back."

Gail was still a little wary. "Does this mean my guy's still clean, because from this it sounds like Marcus was dirty, but if you want me to take my guy out anyway?" She offered, although it would be hard to carry out she needed to prove Wolf could trust her completely after tonight's botched sting.

Wolf waved his hand at Gail. "I have had Marcus under watch as I suspected this but I was not aware of his plan for tonight, but as I told you, it is always better to be prepared."

"Are you sure he's dead?" Gail asked turning to her friend.

Dieter nodded. "I got him twice, the guys used a lot of ammo, he should be dead."

"But we don't have a body." Gail muttered in disappointment, earning her a glare from her friend. She slapped his bad shoulder. "You know what I mean, if he's the leak I wanted more than a body out of him."

"Speaking of bodies," Wolf said focusing back to the more important issue now if Marcus was dead. "Your little side project should prove useful," He told Gail. "I want my package returned."

"Yes boss." Gail replied, she didn't have an option. "I'll get in touch with my guy in the morning, floaters can take a while to get called in."

"Well when it does, get it done." Wolf told her standing. "Goodnight."

With that dismissal Gail and Dieter stood and left the room, Gail taking the kit and forceps with her, although she did leave a trail of blood that made her eye Wolf.

"It will be taken care of." He told her and waved her out. "Enjoy your aftercare Dieter my friend." He finished with a chuckle.

She waited to speak as she followed Dieter out through the back of the bar and into her own car.

"This is fucked up." She muttered as she got into the driver's seat of her Mustang.

Dieter slumped into the passenger seat with a sigh.

"Are you sure Marcus is dead?" She asked her friend, it was always possible to bend the truth in front of Wolf when you know the wrong answer could get you beaten up for your troubles.

"That far out, and shot, yeah, I can't see him managing to swim to shore." Dieter replied. "But I'll get some of the guys to keep their ears to the ground, if he turns up alive we'll find him."

Gail snorted. It would have to do.

"Listen, I need to get back and take care of things before we get into any more problems." Dieter said as he started to get out of the car. "I'll see you tonight?"

"You owe me that beer." She replied.

Dieter paused just as he was about to close the door over. He leaned his head down and eyed his friend. "Who was it?"

Gail knew exactly what he was asking. She didn't look at him as she answered, "15."

"You okay?" He asked after the silence between them stretched. Gail had a long history with the 15 Division.

Gail finally looked at her friend and gave him a shrug. "I did what I had to do." She said.

"Good." Dieter closed the door and Gail watched him get back into one of their blacked out SUVs.

She stared out the windscreen for a while, Dieter still had work, even with the gunshot wound he'd be stuck checking out Wolf's merchandise for most of the day. Gail however could go home and catch up on her sleep but she was anxious to find out what Chris had known about tonight's operation and if she needed to beat the shit out of him for letting her go in there without any warning.

She sighed and started her car, deciding on going back to her apartment.

At the end of the day she had made it out alive and any ass kicking that needed to be done, she'd do it, after some sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

**Part 3**

Chris entered the office space with a tray of coffees. No one but Traci was there. He smiled at her and offered up a cup.

"Thank you." Traci said taking it from him, it was nearly midday and she'd been up over twenty-four hours as it was, coffee right now was a godsend.

"No problem." Chris replied, taking up a spot leaning on her desk as he eyed the operation board across from him. "Dov filled me in this morning, pretty scary huh?" He asked, knowing Traci was among several officers to have taken gunshots to the vest during the raid on what was supposed to be a drug deal at the Docks last night.

Traci shook her head. "It was such a mess." She said taking a tentative drink of the coffee, she was in desperate need of the caffeine to keep her awake. She was grateful that Dex had already offered to have Leo stay with him after school today, it would give her some time to catch up on her sleep.

"One of the Narc guys was taking this morning," He whispered to her even though they were the only ones in the room. "Said there wasn't any trace of drugs in the place."

Traci wearily rubbed at her eyes. She glanced back at the board then got up.

"This guy, Mikka Kutzkov," She pointed to the picture of a face of a clearly dead man. "He's known for smuggling, drugs, guns, people, you name it he can get it."

Chris folded his arms across his chest and nodded, paying very close attention. "Our guys shoot him?"

Traci sighed, "We'll have to wait on ballistics." She pointed to the pictures of more men, all stuck to the board much lower than the polaroid of Mikka Kutzkov. "Three of these guys have self-inflicted gunshots."

"Yeah?" Chris replied, looking surprised. "They shot themselves?"

"Seems like it." Traci confirmed.

"Did you manage to arrest anyone?" He asked looking at the board again. There was a diagram of the hanger and aerial shots of the docks with arrows pointing out entrances. "Seems like a tough assignment, no offence." He said, trying not to speak out of line. It was all over the division that it had been a screwed up operation, with the main guy they were after dead in the morgue and nothing recovered, no cash, no drugs, no contraband of any kind at all.

"Three are currently in the hospital, none of them are expected to make it." Traci admitted, "We have no names on any of these guys," She pointed again to the board. "No one had any documents on them, all we have is a bunch of dead bodies and a hanger full of bullet casings and guns that we can't trace."

She moved back to her desk and sat down gingerly.

"You okay?" Chris asked having seen the awkward way she had taken her seat.

Traci snorted. "Just counting myself lucky for having my vest on."

"Yeah, could have been worse, the water guys, lost four and have two more in the hospital." Chris told her.

Traci put her head in her hands and groaned. It really had been a bungled operation. They hadn't had nearly enough officers on scene and they hadn't been prepared for such a deadly fire fight. Even with a team from SWAT, it just hadn't been enough.

Chris glanced around carefully then meandered over to the board. He slipped a cell phone out of his pocket and took a couple of shots of the board before tucking it away again.

"Well I'm just glad you, Steve and Nick weren't more seriously hurt." He said coming back over to Traci.

Traci opened her mouth to agree with him only for Steve to come into the room bristling in anger.

"I'll leave you guy's to it, enjoy the coffee." Chris said, giving Steve a polite smile before leaving the room.

Traci waited until they were alone before moving closer to her boyfriend. "What did they say?"

Steve had been hauled into a meeting with the Brass in headquarters along with the lead detectives from the drug unit, and water unit, to explain why they had nothing but dead criminals, shot up equipment and dead officers to show for the night's sting operation.

Steve shook his head and went over to his file, flipping through a series of pictures before pulling one out and tossing it down in front of Traci.

"Marcus Chzov, our snitch with the drug lead," He told her. "They just fished his bullet riddled body out of the lake this morning." He made a face as he tried to hold back his anger. Not only had they all been carpeted for the operation he had the memory of watching Traci get shot which he now had to live with.

It wasn't a good memory.

"We've got nothing!" He yelled turning away and slamming his hand against a pile of folders sending them scattering across the floor as his breathing increased.

"Steve?" Traci stood wanting to offer comfort to her boyfriend but Steve held his hand up to stop her approaching him.

"I gotta talk to Frank, see how Carl's wife is coping." He said, mentioning the recent transfer to 15 who had been shot in the thigh last night and bled out before the gun fire had stopped and anyone could get near him.

Traci just watched as Steve marched out of the room.

It had been a bad night all around, and they still had no idea what the deal had been about. They'd been told it was a drug deal but as Chris had said, the drug dogs had been all over the hanger and the docks at first light and they hadn't picked up on anything.

She sat back down and stared at the informant then got up and stuck his picture to the board, scrawling dead next to it before sitting back down.

"Just another dead body now."

xxxxxx

Gail yawned and turned over in her bed.

A glance at her clock let her know she'd managed almost four hours this time. "Not bad." She muttered to herself as she pushed herself up and padded barefoot towards the shower in her bathroom.

After a long cold shower Gail wandered back into her bedroom as she continued to towel her hair dry, it was getting a little long, just past shoulder length now, and she contemplated a quick stop before meeting up with Dieter at the bar but shrugged. She'd get around to it later, she'd rather have a beer and catch up on any new developments before she went and did anything stupid.

She pulled on a pair of sweats and a tee, tucking the pair of rings hanging on a chain around her neck into the top before heading for her kitchen to try and find something edible in her apartment. It was a tough ask given she did very little here but sleep.

She was in luck, she found a box of cereal and a half jug of milk that smelt passable.

She took that and a mug of coffee over to the couch and turned on the TV to see if the news was carrying anything about last night.

Her cell phone buzzed across the table where she had left it along with her keys earlier that morning when she had got in. She took another mouthful of her breakfast and reached over for the device.

She snorted at finding 14 missed calls and 12 text messages waiting on her. "Sure, now you try and warn me, asshole." She muttered tossing it onto the couch beside her, she had no interest in listening to Chris apologise. Right now, if he thought she was dead then it was his own damn fault.

She turned her attention back to the news station she had on but so far nothing.

The house phone rang.

Gail frowned, finishing the last of her bowl of cereal before standing and taking it with her and over to the sink before picking up the still ringing phone.

"Yeah-lo?" She said into the receiver as she stuck it against her ear.

"Hey! You up for some gym time?" A male voice asked her cheerfully, sounding surprised to have his call picked up.

"I might." Gail replied after glancing at the time. An hour or two at the gym sounded great right now, and she might actually get to beat someone up.

"Sweet, you mind if some of the guys are there?" The voice asked.

Gail snorted, figuring this scenario was going to end with a bet on her fighting someone. "If they don't mind me taking their money."

"Alright!"

Gail rolled her eyes. "Give me a half hour." She said and then hung up.

Looking around Gail headed back over into her living space and picked up her keys and phone, she then wandered into her bedroom and pulled out her gym bag. She then changed into some jeans and a form fitting jumper before grabbing her jacket from the hall and heading out for her car.

She lived in one of the nicer areas of the city and while her apartment was sparsely decorated it was all she needed. She never spent much time there anyway but she did approve of the security desk at the front and the underground car park that had secure entry for residents only.

In her line of work it was worth spending the extra dollars.

Throwing her bag into the back seat Gail climbed into her Mustang and pulled out onto the main road and heading for the gym which was located on the other side of the city.

xxxxx

Gail grinned as her opponent wiped the back of his hand over his nose to check for blood after her light headbutt.

"You wanted down and dirty." She said to him with a grin as his hand came back bloodied. Gail watched the anger grow in his eyes that would make this easier for her because angry guys became stupid guys that soon found themselves on the losing end of a fight.

The room they were using had a completely padded floor so as he charged at her Gail didn't hesitate to put him on the mat by catching his punch arm by the wrist and using his momentum to carry him past her, allowing her to lift up the arm at an angle that forced him to his knees if he didn't want a broken arm. She followed that up with a twist at his elbow and brought her foot down lightly against the back of his neck.

Her group of onlookers cheered as the guy on the floor tapped out of the fight.

Gail kept him in the position though and looked around at the rest of the guys in her gym.

"If he had a knife this manoeuvre would have worked just as well, twisting his wrist back," She demonstrated with the hand she still held. "Would release anything he was holding, bottle, brick…whatever." She watched heads nod then released her captive.

She eyed him carefully as he got to his feet, purposefully turning her back on him as she went over to her bag and got a drink of water. When she was done she was pleased to see Jake over by the rest of the guys using a towel to clean up his nose.

The guy had a temper but apparently he didn't take being beaten by a girl too badly.

She stepped forward again. "Anyone else up for it?" She asked. She'd gone through her usual workout and had been in this room with some of the front of house guys from the bars and clubs Wolf ran showing off her takedown technique for the last half hour.

All of the guys in front of her had done time in prison for things like petty theft, robbery, assault, small time drug dealing. Nothing too serious but they were definitely all criminals that could get the customers what they wanted within reason.

It was good business but it paid to know how to handle yourself. Which was why Gail was willing to put on these little shows when some of the guys asked.

She'd learned most of what she knew from Dieter and Anan, the guy whose younger brother had called her to come down earlier. Anan, when he wasn't working a job for Wolf, worked as head of security for some of the city's busiest nightclubs. He had spent most of his life fighting in Israel before being recruited by Wolf several years ago in America.

"How about me?" Anan asked from the doorway as he entered the room to the sound of excited cheers.

Gail shrugged. It was always good to test how far she'd come, she didn't seriously think she could take Anan out but you never knew. "Romi still here?" She asked as they squared up against each other.

Anan nodded at his friend and calmly took up his position.

"You know he asked to come with me tonight?" She told Anan. "I can take someone else." She offered. Romi was a cleaver boy and Anan had him going to College right now and when he wasn't studying he did some work at Gail's bar near the campus. Anan didn't want his brother following the same path he had and Gail respected him enough to keep Romi out of most of her work but tonight she was just going to a bar to catch up with some friends. He was going to be there to make sure nothing stupid happened.

"He's looking forward to it." Anan told Gail with a grin.

Gail took that as consent. "Cool, well, at least I'm sure he'll get a laugh out of it."

Anan chuckled. "I told him to take pictures."

Gail rolled her eyes. She bounced on her toes and rolled her shoulders. Anan was a tall guy, taller than Dieter and his muscle was all functional. But Gail knew where to hit.

"Ready?" He asked eyeing her carefully.

"Oh yeah."

And with that they came together in a rush of punches and blocks and shouts from the rest of the room.

xxxxxx

"Are you sure you're okay?" Romi asked as Gail pulled up outside a bar. His mentor had a cut above her eye and he was sure that if her ribs weren't broken they were bruised up pretty badly.

"You're brother's an ass." Gail muttered as she painfully climbed out of her car.

Romi laughed as he came around to her as she leaned up against the car. "Yeah, well, I think his wife's happy she already has two kids because I don't think he's capable of producing anymore after you were done with his dick."

Gail snorted. It had been the only place she could grab after Anan had put her into a hold on the ground, she'd been pissed off enough to twist maybe more than she should have, but it had won her the fight and nearly five hundred dollars from bets. Everyone but Romi had gone with Anan.

"She should thank me then."

"Yeah, I'll tell her that." Romi muttered with a roll of his eyes.

"Here." Gail muttered as she eyed the bar and the parking lot around them.

Romi opened his hands and accepted Gail's cell phone, car keys, wallet and house keys. "What about that?" He asked gesturing to the chain around her neck.

Gail touched the ring set at her chest. "It stays with me." She told him.

Romi nodded, "You sure about this?" He asked as they head towards the bar and he rushed to tuck all of her belongings into his pockets.

"Yeah, just stay at the bar and watch, don't do anything stupid." She warned him. This had the potential to go very badly. "And don't crash my car."

Romi sighed, he was twenty-two now and had tagged along with Gail enough to know what she wanted him to do tonight. He wasn't going to screw it up. "I know Bravo."

Gail winced. "Don't call me that in here."

"Sorry."

Gail watched him then smacked him hard on the back as she pushed through the front door of the bar. "Relax kid, you'll do fine." She told him then walked ahead of him to the bar and ordered a shot of whisky. She didn't pay any attention to Romi as he sat a couple of seats further into the bar and ordered his own drink.

"Long time no see." The barman said as he placed Gail's drink down. Gail gave him a nod but didn't strike up a conversation about the good old times, she wasn't here for that. Instead she downed the shot and then a second before glancing around and spotted what she was looking for but by the looks she was receiving she'd already been seen.

"Here goes nothing." She muttered to herself as she walked past Romi and dragged an empty chair over to an already full table.

"Well hello guys, long time no see." She said with a big grin as she took in the faces of her brother, Traci, Andy, Nick, Dov, and Chris. There was even a face or two that she didn't know but had been given background information on by Chris.

Her ex colleagues shifted nervously as they looked at each other unsure of what to say. The new faces looked on with puzzled expressions.

"Gail, I'm not sure you should be here." Steve said and by here he meant at The Black Penny, it was a cop bar after all and she wasn't exactly the most upstanding citizen anymore.

"Cramping your style brother? Or do you like to pretend I don't exist anymore, just like mom and dad." She asked.

"You know it's not like that." Steve replied with a tired sigh.

But Gail's attention had already been caught by something else and she put her hand up to Steve. "Hold that thought." She told him as she got up and wandered off to the corner of the bar where Frank, Noelle, Celery and Oliver were sat drinking.

Frank spotted her first and his face clouded over but she ignored everyone but Ollie. "Hey!" She said as he saw her and got to his feet with the help of a walking cane. She stepped forward into his arms and they hugged.

"You look good old man." She said as they broke apart but Oliver kept hold of her arm.

"Hey, less of the old, and geez, you're feeling pretty solid there!" He told her feeling the muscle in her arm.

Gail chuckled and poked at his protruding stomach. "You too." She replied. And then she became aware of how uncomfortable Frank and Noelle were becoming, but Celery had the grace to smile at her.

"I'll leave you to it, but it was good seeing you again Oliver." She said only to get pulled into one more hug from her old partner.

"Look after yourself kid." Oliver whispered in her ear.

Gail closed her eyes for a moment, remembering, then smiled and released him. She bid the rest of his table goodbye then headed back over to her brother's table.

"So, sorry, I'm not sure we've met before," Gail said eyeing the two unfamiliar faces at the table. She held out her hand to the woman sat next to Traci. "I'm Gail Peck, Steve's infamous little sister." She said with a wry grin and was pleased to have her hand gripped and shook in greeting.

"Holly Stewart."

Gail smiled at the woman, she looked more attractive in person than she did from half a room away, and her old photos didn't do her justice.

Gail reluctantly let the hand go and offered hers to the other new face but Dov stopped the woman from taking her hand. She scoffed at her old friend who, like most of the table, was eyeing her suspiciously. "Nice crowd you're mixing with." She commented to Holly.

"That's enough, what do you know about last night?" Nick cut in leaning across the table at her with hard eyes.

She grinned at him, wondering if he had recognised her last night, her distinctive blonde hair would have been hard to miss, but still, there was no way he would have had a good look at her face with the cars headlights at her back aiming into his eyes.

"I heard about that, some cops died right?" She asked playing dumb. "I hope you got the bad guys at least." She added with a smirk.

Nick shot up out of his seat and rounded the table, grabbing her by the arm and hauling her up from her seat and against the bar. "Gail Peck, you're under arrest." He told her and worked his spare cuffs out of his pocket.

Gail winced as he'd slammed her sore ribs against the bar. 'Ow' she mouthed to Romi who was right next to her trying hard not to laugh into his drink. She rolled her eyes as she was cuffed from behind.

A shot of whisky was placed in front of her and Gail eyed the barman.

He smirked at her. "Looks like it's going to be one of those nights."

Gail put her lips around the glass she knocked her head back to down the drink, a hand appeared below her chin and she let the glass fall back into the barman's hand.

"Aren't they all?" She told him.

"Come on." Nick muttered pulling her up straight.

"Wait, wait!" Romi said as he lined his cell phone up and snapped a picture. "Cool!" He said looking down at his phone.

Gail watched him stand and throw some money onto the bar top before leaving. She then looked over at her brother's table but no one except Holly was even glancing her way. She smiled at the brunette just before Nick pushed her from behind and she was heading out of the bar.

"What exactly am I being charged with?" She asked her ex boyfriend.

"Whatever I can get to stick." Nick told her as he kept hold of her as he waited for a squad car to turn up and transport Gail to the Barn.

Gail rolled her eyes. "That'll work."

"Hey, I know you were there last night so fuck you!" He said jostling her.

Gail just chuckled.

"You know for someone whose just been arrested you're not acting very worried about what I can charge you with." He told her.

Gail shook her head. "That's because I'm not worried at all, you've got nothing on me Nick, and I mean _nothing_." She turned to eye him as best as she could given their positions. "You however _should_ be worried."

"Oh yeah, and why is that?" He couldn't stop himself from asking just as a squad car arrived.

"That guy that took the picture? He works for me and it wasn't my picture he was taking, it was yours." She enlightened Nick as a cop got out of the car and took hold of her from a stunned looking Nick.

"Yeah, I'd watch your back for a while Nicky boy." She warned him before she was bundled into the back seat and driven away.


	4. Chapter 4

**Part 4**

Gail yawned and glanced around, she was still in a cell. So far it must have been about twelve hours, at least, and she'd been detained for resisting arrest. Which was a totally bullshit charge but she didn't much care. If Nick wanted to keep playing these games with her that was fine.

Plus they got her into 15 division.

She smiled to herself and got up, she went over to the small window in her cell door and gave it a bang. "When the fuck are you going to let me out of here?!" She shouted then went back over to the platform that doubled as the only piece of furniture she had, it was her seat, her couch, and until she was released, her bed.

Stretching she glanced at her space, she'd got as much sleep as she was going to get, might as well spend the rest of her time getting her exercise in.

She took off her top knowing she'd easily work up a sweat even without the use of gym equipment. Normally she had a yoga routine she did first but the last thing she wanted anyone looking into her cell seeing was her in a passive position.

She'd start off with some bodyweight exercises then go into her martial arts.

And if she got all of that done and was still in here she was going to be very pissed.

xxxxxxx

"Okay, how much longer are we going to hold her for?" Andy asked as she stood with Sam just outside the holding cells.

Sam shrugged. "I'm waiting on forensics."

"You don't really think you're going to find anything to tie her to the docks are you?" Andy asked sceptically, Gail Peck was training from birth to look for the clues the bad guys leave behind, and now that she was on that side of the law she wasn't going to make it that easy for them.

Sam sighed. He didn't think they have anything to hold Gail on, he was just bidding his time.

"Nick seems pretty convinced that she was there." He told his girlfriend.

Andy raised an eyebrow. "Did anyone else agree with him?"

Sam put his hand out. "Traci got hit, then Steve, and then Nick. Carl got closer but…" But he was dead. "I don't know."

"Did you see their vests?" Andy asked.

Sam nodded. Traci and Steve had got two bullets to the centre of the chest, the only thing more professional than that was a hit to the head. Nick went down with one to the chest and two to the abdomen.

"That's the only reason Frank's letting us keep her." He explained. While the shot could have come from Gail Peck, a former police officer with the right kind of training to make those shots, they could also have come from an ex-soldier, or just someone with a long history of shooting at people.

Andy leaned in a little closer to Sam. "What do you think?"

Sam considered that as he leant back against the wall. He remembered the look on Gail's face as she was escorted from the division after she'd been told to hand back her service weapon and her badge in Frank's office. Everyone had been watching through the open blinds as she was spoken to by the top brass. Normally that would have happened at headquarters but Elaine Peck had wanted the meeting to take place here, in front of the rest of the division.

That was cold.

And Gail had walked out with her head held high and a smile on her face as she walked by everyone who had gathered to watch. If he hadn't have known better he would have thought she'd just been heading home after a shift.

It had only been a week after Jerry's funeral and he had been too emotional to meet her eyes, half afraid he would have taken his friends death out on her.

Gross negligence of duty resulting in the death of a fellow officer.

She'd never given an account as to her whereabouts that day, but Jerry was dead and Oliver was in the hospital on life support. And she'd turned up after the fact and called it in. He'd wanted to do more than hit her, he'd wanted her arrested for his friend's death.

Cold as ice, that's how she'd been when he'd confronted her days earlier at the Penny, when he'd found her sat alone drinking while the investigation was being carried out into her conduct that day.

But no matter how much he had screamed at her, or shouted at her, she gave him nothing. Even when he'd dragged her out under the watch of everyone else from 15, she'd still given him nothing.

He tapped the folder he was holding to his thigh, wondering if she'd give him anything today.

"Go to Forensics and see if they have anything yet, we have her exemplars on file so we should find a match if it's there." He told Andy and watched her scurry off.

He sighed and wondered if Nick was wasting their time with this, lately he'd been like a dog with a bone when it came to Gail Peck and the people she worked with.

"You ready?" The officer working holding asked.

Sam glanced at the clock and shrugged. "What's another hour?" He asked with a chuckle before wandering off for a cup of coffee.

It wasn't like Gail was going anywhere anyway.

xxxxx

Gail had gone through all of the lunge and push-up exercises she could think of, she'd even done some handstand work. Right now she was attempting to do dragonfly's but her grip on the flat surface of the platform wasn't that great, but it kept her muscles very tense so it served its purpose even if she did keep dropping out of the move.

Then she heard her cell door being opened.

"Finally!" She said easing out of the position and sitting down while pulling her top over her head. "I was about to do planks next, and I hate those." She muttered as she stood.

The officer that opened her door was unfamiliar but Gail wasn't too surprised it had been over a year since she was last working here.

The guy, rookie by the clean cut fresh faced look, kicked her boots into her cell and she moved to pull them on. Why they had been taken from her in the first place was beyond her, it wasn't like they laced up or that she was actually going to attempt to hang herself.

She snorted and stepped towards the door.

The officer shook his head and pulled out his cuffs. "Turn around." He instructed her.

Gail frowned, she'd been expecting to be let go.

Apparently not.

Gail turned and she felt the cuffs being placed around her wrists. She was beginning to dislike the feeling.

"Let's go."

Gail clenched her jaw as she was escorted through the holding area and out into the open space of the division, she spotted Traci and Steve stood up behind the glass where the D's worked and Chris and Dov where at desks along with the new face from last night.

It was a dog and pony show as she was lead into an interview room. It didn't really bother her, she'd had plenty of experience of that being her mother's daughter.

She grunted as one cuff was released and she found herself cuffed to the table instead.

The officer then walked out and left her alone.

"Now's probably the wrong time to ask to go to the bathroom huh?" She asked the two-way mirror.

She gave the steel bar a tug then out of sheer curiosity she glanced under the table to see if there was any recording devices attached. The camera in the corner of the room may have been blinking red but you couldn't tell if it was actually recording. Microphone recording can be manipulated and Gail already needed eyes in the back of her head as it was.

The door opened again and Sam Swarek entered, dropping a folder down in front of Gail as he took the seat across from her.

"Sammy!" She said in greeting as she smiled at him. "I hear it's Detective Swarek now, congrats!"

Sam cleared his throat and opened the folder, finding the photos he wanted he arranged them in front of her so she could have a good look. He pointed to her face. "This is you."

Gail chuckled then decided to play along. "It is."

Sam pointed to the next picture of Gail standing between two men. "This is you with Damien Wolf."

Gail smiled at the expectant look he gave her. "My boss, yes."

"Your boss." Sam chuckled himself playing with the photo. No one had been able to I.D. the second figure in the picture but he had been seen with Gail and Wolf on several occasions on the run up to last night's operation.

Sam looked out another picture, one with Wolf coming out of his main bar and moving towards a couple of vehicles. "Your 'boss' Damien Wolf is wanted on numerous counts of murder and drug dealing as well as extortion."

"So arrest him." Gail told her old training officer.

"Who is this man?" Sam asked pointing to the figure with Gail and Wolf. He watched the blonde shrug. "You must know who this is," He pulled out another series of shots all of them of her and the bearded man that had been with her and Wolf. "He got into your car here," He slide the shot on top of the others. "Here, here and here." He said as he continued to put down photos that were clearly different times of the day and different days given the change in lighting and clothes.

Gail studied the pictures of Dieter and made a few noises before shaking her head at Sam.

"You know what? I'm not sure if I ever got a name, but the sex Sam, the sex was amazing!" She told him with a smirk and a roll of her eyes as she slid back in her seat as much as the cuffs would allow.

She let out a low groan just to see if it would get Sam to blush.

It did.

She grinned as she sat up straight and gave the detective facing her a no nonsense look.

"Now enough with the fucking pictures, why am I really here?" She demanded. They both knew her charge was bullshit and they had held her longer than was legal.

Sam smiled and gathered the photos up and put them away only to pull out another set. Again he arranged them in front of Gail, only this time every face was of a dead person, several had police uniforms on.

"This is why you are here Gail." He pointed to the dead officers. "These officers, my colleagues and friends, died trying to arrest these men." Now he pointed to several dead figures including a picture of Mikka Kutzkov. "And an officer who was there identified you as a shooter."

Gail simply smiled back at him. If they had any proof that she had been there or that she'd shot at anyone she'd already have been arrested and her mother would have her in cuffs in front of a camera declaring for all to see that justice comes above all in her city, even family.

"When was this?" She asked, playing curious though she knew he had deliberately left out a time frame for these events.

"Night before last." He told her.

"Ah." She nodded. "Okay, then we can clear this right up because I was working." She told him confidently.

"Yeah, I think you were." He told her tapping his finger to one of the pictures. "Were you aware that your brother was also shot?" He asked and watched her closely to see her reaction.

"We aren't on speaking terms, although you should know that." She replied then gave him a puzzled look. "I'm sure you were sitting with Rosati last night when I came to the Penny to see my brother." She chuckled. "And here I thought you had a thing going on with Andy."

Sam rubbed at his forehead, a sign that his patience was getting thinner.

"Who said I was there?" She asked him. "It wasn't Nicky by any chance was it?" She gave him a knowing look. "I bet it was."

"So, answer the question, where were you the night before last?" Sam asked her again.

Just then the door opened and an older gentleman dress in a very expensive suit entered the room followed by Frank Best.

"Don't say another word Ms Peck." The man said to Gail as he placed his briefcase onto the table Gail was cuffed to. He scowled at Sam as he noticed them keeping Gail in place.

Sam rubbed his neck and glanced at Frank who subtly shrugged at him letting Sam know there was nothing he could do about the lawyer's entrance.

"This is security evidence of my client at her place of employment on the night in question as well as her previous shift." He placed a DVD in a sleeve down onto the table he then took out a couple of sheets of paper stabled together. "Here is a list of her shifts between her security work and running her own bar."

Gail smiled at her lawyer then looked at Sam with a raised eyebrow as she tugged on her cuffed arm.

"We done?"

Sam scratched his ear. "Security footage can be doctored."

"So can pictures." Gail answered back.

The lawyer grunted then pulled out a second DVD and placed it down. "This is footage I have just obtained from The Black Penny." He eyed the figure of Frank Best behind him before glaring at the detective in front of his client. "It clearly shows Ms Peck entering the bar and speaking with, not just her brother but also Staff Sergeant Best here before a plain clothed officer manhandled a compliant Ms Peck and arrested her without cause."

Gail smirked. He shoots, he scores.

Frank clenched his jaw. He wondered how it was possible for the lawyer to be here with this amount of evidence when Gail had never been allowed her phone call.

"The officer in question," The lawyer made a show of pulling out his own file and fingering through it. "Ah, yes, a Nick Collins. Who not only had a previous relationship with my client but has also stopped her for 'routine' traffic stops a total of 8 times in the last six weeks." He glared at Best. "Does that not strike you as excessive?" He then looked back down to his file. "No charges were ever brought on any of those occasions." He looked back at Best pointedly. "Curious, isn't it, frankly Sergeant, I find it bordering on harassment of my client."

Gail kept her mouth shut as she watched the resigned expression fall across Sam's face at her lawyer's words.

"In fact after I'm done here I'll be filing a restraining order against the officer in question, although I do have to wonder about the running of this division as you were seen at the arrest of my client Sergeant Best and you personally allowed an off-duty officer barely out of his probation period to arrest my client. That shows very poor judgment on your part which I will be discussing with the DA because if this is how your officers make their arrests questions will need to be asked about your position."

Frank squared his shoulders and glared at the lawyer. He'd known Nick was playing a hunch that they'd be able to pin something on Gail but he was sure he'd seen her. Unfortunately so far they had no evidence of that and Gail Peck was far from cracking under the pressure of Sam's interview.

Sam coughed. "Ms Peck, was merely helping us with our enquires." He said as he stood and started to gather his things. When he placed his hands on the DVD's Gail's lawyer had provided they were pulled out of his grasp.

"In that case you have no need of these." The lawyer said and placed them back into his briefcase and closed it.

Annoyed Sam gave him a tight smile and walked past him and Best and out of the room.

"Well?"

The officer that had brought Gail into the room scurried back and released Gail from the cuffs before taking them with him as he left.

Gail smile and stood up ignoring the need to rub at her wrist. "My things?" She asked Frank as she stood with her lawyer.

Frank left it a minute before pointing and holding the door open for the pair. "This way."

Gail walked back through the station beside her lawyer who was grumbling about complaints and ill treatment and the poor running of the division as they were shown back into holding.

She stood at the desk and waited for the officer to get her belongings just as Frank ordered beside her. She watched the sealed bag get pulled out of a locked drawer and placed in front of her.

There was a list in front of the bag that listed its contents.

Ring x 2

Watch x 1

Necklace + 2 rings x 1

Phone x 1

Cash $28

She smirked as she ripped the bag open and returned everything back to their rightful place, even the phone she hadn't brought with her.

She saw the glance Frank gave to her necklace and the rings hanging from it as she pulled it on over her head. She then took hold of her jacket, which had also been confiscated, and eased it on. She left it unzipped as she turned to Frank, aware that his eyes were still on the rings she let dangle over her clothes.

"It's been fun, nice seeing you again Frankie." She said and then walked with her lawyer back through the station and out onto the street. The daylight caused her to wince and then she rolled her shoulders.

"Well glad that's over."

He lawyer hummed as they paused by the curb and the town car that he was about to get into.

"Was that really from last night?" She had to ask, getting the security tape from a cop bar in the space of a few hours was pretty impossible for most people.

"Our boss knows how to get things done but you can thank him." He said then pointed across the street to where Gail could see Romi leaning against her car.

Gail gave the boy a wave which was returned eagerly.

The lawyer got into the back seat of the car and rolled down the window. "I'm sure it was worthwhile?"

Gail turned away from Romi and gave the older man a shrug. "Have to wait and see." She told him.

"I'll let him know." The man nodded at her then rolled the window back up, ending the conversation.

Gail waited until the car drove off before she hurried across the road to Romi who pulled her into a hug.

"How did it go?" Romi asked as he released her then took her in checking to see if she was okay.

Gail rolled her eyes. "They've got nothing."

Romi nodded and got into the car on the driver's side as Gail eased into the seat beside him and rested her head back. "Where too?" He asked his friend.

"Did Anan mention anything?" Gail asked, while what she really meant was had his brother told him to get her to Wolf first thing.

Romi started the Mustang purring and shook his head. "He said he'd come over this evening."

Which meant she was going to get some chill out time before tonight. Dieter had already confirmed that the packages were as advertised which meant Wolf was now in a rush to get his missing one returned, and that was on Gail.

"You got class?" She asked Romi as he pulled her car out and started for her apartment.

Romi shook his head. "Not until tomorrow."

Gail wondered if she only imagined the hopeful tone of his voice. But the final decision wasn't hers anyway. "I guess you can stick around for a while then."

Romi grinned. "Awesome." He muttered to himself.

Gail tried not to smile but she couldn't help it, she really liked the kid.

Even if he was trying to get her into trouble with his brother.


	5. Chapter 5

**Part 5**

Holly glanced at Traci as they sat down. She was dying to ask about the blonde from last night but she wasn't sure if she was crossing a line, she'd only been friends with the detective for a very short time.

"So how are things with…Sharon?" Traci asked as she opened her water and picked at her salad.

Holly grinned, Traci had got that almost right. And Holly had been very pleased when her sexuality, once out in the open with her new friend, became a non-issue. There was always that niggle of concern over what someone thought of her when she told them but so far her new friends were taking it in their stride.

"Karen." She corrected. "And they fizzed out the minute she asked what I did for a living."

Traci gave her a sympathetic look. "I'm sorry."

Holly chuckled and shook her head, clearly not broken up over it. "I'm new to Toronto Traci, I wasn't looking for anything more than a bit of fun." She explained.

"Well good." Traci smiled back at her friend. "How did you find last night?" It had been the first time Holly had been to the Penny and met the gang outside of work.

Holly had her opening but she gave the younger woman and cautious look before replying. "Eventful." She started with. "I never knew Steve had a sister."

Traci sighed and waited to answer that while she ate. "That's a difficult situation, he doesn't like talking about it." And she didn't like thinking about it.

"When I mentioned her name back at the lab I couldn't stop people telling me about her." Holly confessed. "I was just looking for some facts to go with all the watering hole gossip." She gave her friend a wry grin.

Traci sighed and looked around the small café they were in. She was down at the labs waiting on a trace report that hadn't finished yet and stopped in to see if Holly had time to catch lunch while she waited to prevent her going back to 15 and having to come back for the report.

She had to concede that if Holly didn't hear the truth from her she'd have plenty of other people willing to give her their take on the events that left Jerry dead and Gail out of uniform.

"Jerry Barber was my fiancé, we were two weeks from getting married," Traci said, her voice quiet and steady. "He, Gail and Oliver Shaw were out to pick up one of his CI's who had missed a meet up with him the previous day. Jerry was planning on taking down a neighbourhood drug dealer, this guy was a junkie and gave up his supplier to keep himself out of a possession charge." She continued.

Holly watched closely as her friend spoke. She'd heard that Detective Barber's death had been the reason for Gail Peck's dismissal from the force.

"Three hours after they left for the arrest, Gail calls in, Jerry had been shot twice in the chest, Oliver in the chest and thigh." Traci was almost emotionless as she spoke. "Jerry died before anyone got there, Oliver was in a medical induced coma for over a week before he was well enough to be conscious."

Holly almost wished she hadn't asked, no one had mentioned that Traci had such a personal connection to Gail losing her job.

But she couldn't make herself stop the other woman.

"When the dust settled Gail had explained that she hadn't been on the scene when Oliver and Jerry were shot. She point blank refused to give an answer as to where she was and when Oliver woke up he had trouble remembering. She was put in front of the discipline board and asked to explain her whereabouts one last time. The Super Intendant gave her a choice, give an explanation or hand over her gun and badge."

Holly's eyes widened.

"She just took off her badge and gun and walked out the door." Traci continued.

"Wow." Was all Holly could say.

Traci shook her head and went back to her food.

"I'm sorry about your fiancé." Holly offered as she decided to leave the questions and follow Traci's lead by continuing with her lunch.

"Thank you." It was still hard for Traci but life went on. "The thing was that the Super Intendant was Elaine Peck,"

"Gail's mom?" Holly blurted out in shock.

Traci nodded. "Yeah, the sad thing about it was that Steve was sure his mom was bluffing, that they just needed Gail to give a full account of the events that left a detective dead and a very much loved senior officer fighting for his life."

"She bluffed?"

"And lost." Traci replied quietly. "We all lost I think." She added with her head down and her eyes on her food.

Holly let them both finish their food as she tried to take in what she'd just been told.

Traci wiped her hands and got up to put her rubbish in the bin, when she sat back down she could still see the questions in Holly's eyes.

"So, as you know, Steve works the guns and gangs side, about three months after Gail walked out of 15 she turned up on some surveillance shots for another investigation. She had got a job as club security for a well know criminal by the name of Damien Wolf."

That's when something clicked with what Holly had been told at the lab. "And that's when the rumour that she set them up started?" She asked.

Traci winced, she didn't believe it and Steve swore blind that his sister would never do that, but the rest of the division weren't so sure. Still aren't.

"Yeah." She replied. "Not that I think that for a second, I went to the Academy with Gail and we worked together for a couple of years, she was a cop born and bred."

"Where do you think she was?" Holly had to ask.

Traci shrugged. The only people that knew the answer to that weren't saying. "She could have said she'd gone for coffee and she'd still have her badge." Traci said as she played with her water bottle.

"Really?" Holly asked, as they both got up to head back to the lab.

Traci nodded as they left the café and walked out into the street. "Happens all the time, she was the lowest ranking officer which meant she was at Jerry and Oliver's beck and call."

"So her mother really had been bluffing."

"Yeah."

"Then why not just say that, why walk away?" Holly asked with a frown. "That doesn't make sense."

"You don't know Elaine Peck, Gail would literally shut down whenever she was mentioned or worse, when she turned up at the station." Traci paused as she opened the front door for Holly as they entered the forensic building that was just about a block from police headquarters. "That woman is a really piece of work."

Holly nodded. "I had the displeasure." She told Traci. "She came down on my second day, just stood there in front of me, when I asked if there was anything she needed she told me that if my findings didn't hold up in court that I should go back to whatever town I came from."

"Oh yeah, sounds about right." Traci said, unable to keep in a chuckle as she pictured Elaine Peck laying down the rules to the new senior pathologist in town.

"You Toronto folk do know Vancouver is a city now, right?"

Traci laughed at the bewildered look she was getting. And she had to wonder how Elaine Peck had reacted to Holly, who was always methodical and very intelligent in all of their dealings together.

"Right?"

xxxxxx

Chris was working the front desk when his cell phone buzzed in his pocket. Checking to make sure his attention wasn't required elsewhere he took it out and answered it after checking to see who was calling him.

Aaron Samuels.

What an asshole.

"Hey buddy!" He said as he answered the call. He listened to the 27 Division officer as he mentioned their talk last night about pulling bodies out of the lake. Turns out Samuels just got called out to a body washing up. "No way! That's freaky…hey, it wasn't a kid was it?" He asked sounding concerned. "Homeless? Oh, probably never get any ID then, just another John Doe, poor bastard."

As he was talking to Aaron, Chris took a few coded notes on a spare sheet of paper nearby.

"Yeah, longer they take to find, the worse they smell, gross man." Chris spotted Chloe making her way over with his coffee. "Hey, listen I gotta go…yeah we're still on for tonight, yeah, see you then." He said before hanging up and smiling to his colleague.

"Here you go." Chloe said placing his drink into his hands as she moved over to her own seat and sat down with her own drink, herbal tea.

When she twisted in her seat she spotted the markings on the paper next to Chris, it looked almost like the shorthand they taught at the Academy but wasn't.

"What's that?" She asked shifting closer.

Chris looked up from his texting. "Hm?"

"That?" Chloe repeated as she pointed.

Chris tried not to react as he realised what she was looking at. "Oh, that." He picked it up and quickly folded it over and placed it into his notebook. "Just some," Chris came up blank but a civilian just walked in and he stood up, straightening his uniform.

"Hello sir, how can I help?" He asked as the man came over and told him his car had been stolen while he'd been in a shop. "Let me get my forms for that sir, and we'll see what we can do." He told the man with a smile.

Chloe watched, her eyes flicking to Chris' notebook but then the phone rang and her attention went back to her work. "Hello, this is Officer Price, how may I help?"

xxxxxx

Gail threw her hand down onto the table where she sat with Dieter, Kurt and two of Dieter's guys. Romi sat at her shoulder not allowed to join the game but with Anan busy he was free to stick around until Gail told him to go.

"I'm out." She muttered picking up a handful of nuts and throwing them into her mouth.

She glanced at Romi and shook her empty glass. He rolled his eyes but took her glass and wandered off to the bar. "That was a shit hand Dieter, you stacking the deck?" She asked him seriously as she was down to her last few hundred bucks.

Dieter only grinned at her as he continued the game, soon Kurt and Jason had thrown their cards down as well leaving him facing Alexander who pushed more money into the pot. A few back and forth increases between them and the pot totalled several thousand dollars.

"Let's see them." Alexander said turning his cards over.

Dieter winced and threw his cards face down. "Shit!"

The rest of the table laughed as Alexander pulled the cash closer to himself.

Romi came back and Gail took her drink. "Thanks." She took a drink then looked back at her table mates. "So are we doing this then?" She asked. It was getting late.

Dieter looked at Romi for a second then back at Gail. "Numbers?" He asked her.

Gail knew he was trying to tell her not to include Romi but Dieter didn't need to worry because she never had any intention of allowing him to go with her.

"Just me, Kurt to drive, and one other person." She replied. Then smiled at Alexander. "I think I'll take Lucky."

Alexander's eyes narrowed but then he smiled and gave her a nod. "No problem."

Gail then looked back at Dieter. "It wasn't a positive ID, so this might be a bust."

"And it might not." Dieter replied as he picked up his cards and put them back into their box. The fun was over and the real work was about to start.

"Here's hoping." She agreed and finished off her drink. They were going to a lot of trouble and getting it wrong was going to put a dent on Wolf's bid to get his hands on that last package.

Gail stood from her seat and so too did Romi. She eyed Kurt. "Pick up at 3?"

"Ja." He replied then lifted his drink to her. "Bravo!" Then the rest of the table lifted their drinks and echoed the salute before downing their drinks, smacking the empty glasses back onto the table.

Gail chuckled and turned to leave as laughter broke out around the table. "Fucking assholes." She muttered good naturedly as Romi joined her and they left the bar and walked over to her car. Given the amount of alcohol she had drank she planned on sleeping until she was needed.

Romi opened the passenger door for his friend then ran around to the driver's side.

"So I'm not going am I?" He had to ask.

Gail smiled, her eyes closed and her head back against her seat. "Oh, hell no!" She told him. "That's more than my life's worth." Not only would Anan actually kill her this time, she never wanted this level of crazy to be part of the boy's life.

Romi grinned at his friend. "Hey, I wouldn't have told him!" He said trying to convince the blonde to let him come.

Gail waved her hand around in front of her. "Gun's, dead bodies, it's not your thing Romi." Then she sighed and opened her eyes to look at him. "Besides, I need you on something else." She confessed.

"Yeah?" Romi couldn't keep the excitement from his voice.

Gail groaned then she looked at him, watched as he drove them back to her apartment where he'd be staying until she returned from the job sometime in the morning.

He reminded her so much of Chris Diaz.

"You need me to tail someone? Or drop off a payment?" He asked quickly, eager to know what his friend needed from him. With his brother away for the next few days he didn't have anyone to stop him.

Gail snorted. "Yeah sure," She pushed his shoulder as she shook her head. "No, you're going to sit in my apartment and play on my computer tough guy."

"Oh, come on!"

Gail grinned as they arrived at her apartment building and Romi took them into the underground parking lot.

"We all gotta start somewhere kid."

Romi frowned at his friend but he couldn't stay mad at the blonde. As he shut off the car he came around and slipped his arm around her shoulder as she leaned into him.

They looked very much like a couple as they giggled their way to the lift bank and made their way up to Gail's floor.

Romi smiled as Gail leaned into him tiredly as they waited to get to her floor. He put his arms around her and hugged her close.

He pressed his lips to her forehead just as the lift stopped and dinged before the doors opened.

He let Gail go and followed the blonde to her door.

As much as he wanted to listen to her and do what she wanted, he also didn't want Gail to walk out the door later tonight and for him to never see her again. Anan wasn't around to look out for her so maybe he could.

"It's just a body pick up." He tried again.

Gail chuckled, it wasn't just a body pick up, it was a little more complicated than that. "The answers still no." She said fumbling with the door.

"I can stay in the car with Kurt." He offered as they entered her apartment.

"No."

"Please Bravo?"

"Nope." Gail continued as she flopped face down on her sofa. If she could get an hour or two she just might have the brain function to get through her job later without getting caught.

Romi sighed and came over and sat down on the floor beside her as she placed her gun down next to him, still within reach.

"I'll go to summer school." He played his best hand, she'd been trying to get him to commit to graduate school after the summer but he wanted to come work with her and Anan.

Gail opened an eyelid and saw his pleading look. Kurt was a great driver, he knew what to look for and when to cut his losses and leave before he couldn't.

And he wasn't bad with a gun either.

Romi saw a smile creep over Gail's face. "Really?"

Gail turned her face back into the cushion to hide her grin.

"Maybe."

"Yes!"


	6. Chapter 6

**Part 6**

Gail checked her watch as Kurt started the van they would be using. It would take another twenty minutes from their current location to get where they needed to be and then she and Alexander would have fifteen to thirty minutes at the most to get in and out with the body, assuming they could find it.

She glanced at Lucky, he was dressed all in black, much like she was herself. It was a good start but she was still a little unsure of the guy having never worked closely with him. But the same would have been said about Jason and taking Dieter with her on this would have been overkill.

"You ready?" She asked him as she sat in the passenger seat.

Alexander nodded and let out a deep breath. He knew what the body looked like, it was why he and Jason where at the bar tonight with Dieter. Going in and getting the right body was his part in tonight's plan, Gail would get them into the building and down to where the bodies were kept. Once he had found the right body they would both be racing to get back out before building security did their routine checks of the place.

"Here." Romi muttered as he handed Gail a black box that fit into her palm. "It'll work from about thirty feet but you should still stick together just in case." He explained as he reached over and switched the device on and it sat blinking in the blonde's hand.

"You sure about this?" Gail asked. Both she and Alexander would be wearing masks but it was better if there was no evidence at all of how many people broke in and stole the body.

Romi rolled his eyes. If there was anything he knew it was tech, and he'd never risk Gail's safety without being absolutely sure. "I've tested it, it works Bravo."

"Okay." Gail replied softly and tucked the box into her jeans. She pulled her gun out and checked it was loaded. While she wanted tonight to go smoothly, especially given she had Romi with her, it paid to be prepared.

And the building security patrolled armed.

She put her gun back at her hip and glanced at the passing scenery.

They were almost there.

As Kurt slowed and turned a corner to take them to the back of the building Gail turned in her seat and grabbed at Romi. "You step out of this van or do something stupid and you won't have to worry about what your brother will do to you, you got that?" She warned him as she glared.

Romi grinned. "Love you too."

Gail groaned and pushed him away from her as Romi laughed. And then Kurt was pulling up to a stop and it was time.

"Let's go." She told Alexander as she covered her face and got out. Alexander pulled the side door open and joined her as Romi closed the door back over.

Quickly Gail went to the door. She was well acquainted with the building and once she picked the lock she knew exactly where to go and how long it would take them to get down there and back, the only real variable was how long it would take Alexander to pick out the body they were after.

With a quick twist of the pick the door opened. Gail pulled it open slowly, wondering if it had been alarmed since the last time she was here, but they were in luck. "Fifteen minutes, let's do this." She told Alexander and then they both disappeared into the building.

xxxxxx

Holly yawned and hit send on the reporting system she'd spent the last few hours using before smiling and leaning back in her chair. With that over and done she'd just earned herself the next three days off.

She shut down the computer and reached over for her cup only to find the contents stone cold.

"Bleh." She screwed her face up as the taste hit her mouth and then put the cup back down and stood from her chair. She winced as her back protested and she had to twist her upper body to loosen her spine.

Pondering whether or not to make a fresh pot of coffee Holly finally decided it was probably a good idea given she had to now drive herself all the way home.

Taking her cup with her she exited her office only to be knocked to the ground by a moving body.

"Shit!" A male someone called.

Holly grunted as she found herself face down on the hallway floor, her cup and glasses having been sent skirting away from her. Just as she was reaching her hand out for her eyewear a set of hands grabbed at her pulling her up and slamming her into the wall with enough force to wind her.

_Shit indeed_. The figure holding her was dressed all in black and by the face mask Holly gathered she'd just run into a great deal of trouble. Right now she was wishing she'd gone home earlier and just come back in the morning to finish her report.

"What the fuck now?" Alexander asked Gail as he held the woman in place. They'd only just found the body and were heading back out to the van when the woman had come out of nowhere.

Gail's hands clenched at her sides, she recognised the brunette. Her eyes flicked around the hallway, it was empty which was good but a check of the time let her know they had eight minutes to get out.

"Bring her in here." She told Alexander as they left the occupied body bag in the hallway where they had dropped it.

"Hey, listen I-"

"Shut the fuck up!" Alexander hissed at the woman as he dragged and pushed her after Gail. "What now?" He asked the blonde as she stood in the middle of a lab.

Grateful for the gloves she had on, Gail searched in several drawers before finding what she was looking for. "Sit her down." She instructed Alexander as she pulled out a roll of tape from the drawer. "We'll tie her up."

Alexander paused with the woman and turned to Gail. "The fuck we will!" He told her then pulled his own gun from his jeans. "We should just kill her and go." He said as the woman whimpered and tried to pull out of his grasp.

Angry at Alexander for pulling the gun Gail stepped over and quickly pulled Holly out of his hold and pushed her in the direction of the chair in the corner of the room.

"Sit." She ordered Holly before looking back to Alexander. "Put that away now." She hissed at him before turning back around to tie Holly up. As she pushed Holly to sit down she knelt, doing her best to keep any eye contact to a minimum with the pathologist.

Alexander started panicking, witnesses were the last thing they needed, and even with the masks it was clear there was two of them taking the body and that one of them was male and the other female just by the height difference and their voices.

And the woman had heard them both speak which meant she could probably identify them.

There was no way they could leave her alive.

His feet started moving forward as he watched Bravo tie the woman's legs in place against the chair. As he got to the blonde his hand went back to his gun. He'd never killed anyone before but there was always a first time for everything.

Holly watched the figure approach her and even if her eyesight wasn't perfect without her glasses she could clearly see the gun in his hand. Her body started shaking as she realised what was about to happen to her.

With tears stinging her eyes Holly looked down and glimpsed a set of crystal clear blue eyes that sent a shockwave through her body. "Gail?" Her voice trembled with fear.

Gail heard the in breath of shock from behind her just as she leapt to her feet and spun towards Alexander. As she suspected he had his gun at the ready and was shifting his arm to aim at Holly.

She reacted without thinking. One hand grabbed the barrel of the gun and twisting sharply to trap and pin Alexander's finger and therefore hand. Her other hand came up with her movement and she connected viciously with the heal of her hand to Alexander's face, snapping his head back as she pulled the gun free allowing him to stagger away from her.

Gail watched as he stumbled into the autopsy table and fell to the ground with a groan. He stayed there kneeling away from her and she took the opportunity to get back to securing Holly while tucking Alexander's gun into the back of her jeans.

Her eyes met Holly's and they both knew the pathologist understood who it was tying her up.

Gail put her head back down and continued, she was running out of time. As she was working on Holly's hands she heard Alexander get to his feet. "Hallway. Now!" She spat at him and after a moment of hesitation his footsteps retreated.

Taking a deep breath Gail stood and pulled her mask off, revealing herself to the brunette.

"They have cameras in here." Holly warned the blonde unconsciously.

Gail almost smiled. She leaned over and studied Holly. "I need you to listen to me very carefully. You didn't see how many. They wore masks. They took a body. They tied you up and threatened to kill you. They left."

Holly swallowed nervously at the intensity in the blonde's eyes as it hit home that the man out in the hall had just tried to kill her.

Gail did her best to ignore the tears that were starting to fall from Holly's eyes. "Holly, do you understand?"

Blinking the tears free Holly finally gave a short nod.

"Good." Gail muttered then pulled something free from her pocket. It was a hood, the type that was used in kidnappings and beatings in Gail's world.

Holly saw it and started panicking all over again. "No, please, no." She begged as her head shook and she started to struggle against her bindings.

Gail held Holly's face in her hands and forced them into a stare. "You need to trust me. Please Holly, I don't have time."

Holly let out a whimper as more tears fell, but she stopped trying to get free and lowered her head, no longer able to look Gail in the eye. She was powerless, the man in the hall wanted her dead and right now Gail could do anything she wanted and there wasn't much Holly could do to stop her.

Gail sighed silently and got to work.

She placed tape as gently as she could over Holly's mouth and, after what she hoped was a reassuring look, placed the black hood loosely over Holly's head.

Gail then put her own mask back on and moved away, only to stop and go back. She leant over and whispered. "You're okay, the guard's due any minute in this section. You'll be okay Holly."

With that Gail raced into the hallway and, ignoring the glare she was getting, picked up her end of the body bag and started for the exit at a quick jog.

xxxxxx

Heaving the bag into Romi's hands Gail climbed into the back after the body bag to prevent any more time being wasted.

"Drive Kurt, now!" She called out even before she had slammed the side door closed. But once she had she felt the van already in motion.

The atmosphere inside was tense and silent as Kurt drove back road after back road on route to where they had to leave the body and the van for another team to dispose of.

Romi looked at Gail as she pulled her mask from her face and ordered her hair back into place. The blonde didn't look at all happy. A glance behind them into the back of the van showed Alexander shifting his weight back and forth as he stared daggers into Gail's back.

"What's wrong?" He asked quietly, concerned for his friend.

Gail turned to look at him and shook her head, she wasn't going to talk about it right now and she wanted him to drop it. He got the hint and settled shoulder to shoulder with her as they looked out the windscreen as Kurt continued driving them further out of the city.

Alexander had already pulled off his mask, gloves and even his jacket. But he couldn't get over one thing. That woman tonight knew Bravo's name and they had left her alive, Gail had left her alive.

No way was he going to jail.

"Give me my gun." He told Gail as he continued to glare at the blonde. She was the one that screwed up not him.

Gail scoffed and sent him a look over her shoulder before ignoring him. She had more important things to worry about, like the fact she wasn't sure Holly would keep her name out of it and also more importantly for her and by extension Wolf…

"You're bleeding." Romi said to Alexander as he turned to keep an eye on him after the way he had just spoken to his friend. Right now, with the way he was acting, Romi didn't want him getting his gun back either. But he did wonder why Gail had it in the first place.

Alexander put his hand to his face, sniffing, he pulled his hand back and spotted blood.

He glared at Gail again. "Bitch."

He wiped his arm across his face and stepped forward, holding his hand out again even as Gail remained facing away from him. "Give me my fucking gun!" He told her. "You fucked up, not me."

Romi eyed his friend curiously. He didn't know what Alexander was talking about but he didn't like the direction of the conversation or the accusation that Gail had done something wrong.

They had come for the body and it was there on the bed of the van, so everything was good, wasn't it?

Gail chuckled and turned to finally face Alexander. "I screwed up?" She asked with a grin. She let her eyes drift to his nose which was still bleeding. "I'm not the one that left something behind for the cops to find and trace back to me."

Alexander paled at the smugness in the blonde's tone and the realisation that his fall against the metal table may have caused him to bleed on it or the floor as he knelt to get his bearings back after Gail had hit him.

"You don't know that." He offered shakily. Just because he was bleeding now it wasn't proof he had bled at the morgue.

Gail straightened and took a step towards him, her movements steady, even as the van rocked with Kurt's driving. She shrugged. "Can we really take that chance?" She asked him with a cock of her head.

Alexander's eyes widened.

Gail smiled at him and then quickly reached behind her and pulled out his own gun only to fire it at him. She emptied the clip into his chest in a tight radius over his heart area just as his hands came up to try and stop her.

He staggered back and fell to the floor of the van in a muffled thud.

Gail eyed the blood frothing at his mouth and the twitching movement of his limbs as he spluttered and groaned before it all stopped. His eyes stayed open, staring at nothing. She dropped the gun onto his chest.

They now had two bodies to dispose of but it didn't really matter did it?

"We good?" Kurt called back as he continued driving, never bothered about his own safety around Bravo.

"Oh, yeah." Gail replied, then she moved back over and resumed her place beside Romi who looked slightly dazed by what had just happened.

She offered him a smile. "You going to stay home next time?" She asked him.

Romi eyed her then the body of Alexander. Then he offered her a shrug. He might not know what was going on but he didn't really regret being by the blonde's side.

His eyes went back to the body and then he nudged his friend's shoulder. "Guess he ran out of luck tonight."

It earned him a chuckle.

"Nice." Gail replied, the tension at Romi seeing her kill quickly relaxing.

It was just bodies and guns.

He'd get used to it.

Now she just had to worry about Holly.


	7. Chapter 7

**Part 7**

Sam wandered along the hallway, doing his best to avoid the rest of the people coming and going as he yawned. It was an hour before his shift was due to start at 15 but he'd been woken by the constant ringing of his phone.

Best had informed him to get his ass to the morgue pronto and take care of things and then hung up before Sam had managed a hello.

"Okay, what have we got?" He asked as he walked into the room he'd been directed to by Dov who had hurried past him with an armful of forensic sample bags.

Traci stood up from where she was examining something one of the techs had found on the floor.

"Hey Sam, you leading this?" She asked as she joined him by the door.

Lifting his hands up and glancing around at all the activity he said, "I guess so."

Traci gave him a look.

He shrugged. "Give me a break I've been up for like ten minutes and I haven't even had a cup of coffee yet." He grumbled at her.

She chuckled and brought out her note book. "What we know so far is that less than forty minutes ago, Darren," She pointed to the security guard still stood in the room talking to Steve Peck. "As he did his round heard muffled sounds form this direction," She guided Sam back out into the hall and pointed to the way Sam had entered. "He came down, said he spotted a broken mug, spilt coffee on the floor and a pair of glasses." None of which were there anymore but numbered yellow plastic scene markers gave Sam the gist. "He could still hear muffled cries and as he came into here," She walked Sam back into the autopsy room. "He found Dr Stewart tied to that chair with a hood over her head and her mouth taped up." She stopped here and shot Sam a look.

He sighed and let his head droop forward. "He contaminated the scene, didn't he?"

Traci hesitated but replied with a quiet, "Yeah."

That was not a good start. Sam looked around at the faces of people in the room with them. "And where is Ms Stewart right now?"

"In the bathroom with Andy." Traci told him with a hand gesture to the hall again.

Sam glanced that way wondering if Andy was okay, she'd been on the night shift last night which was probably why he wasn't in the best of moods, they'd be working opposite hours for the next few days. He hated when that happened.

"She said anything? Description of the intruders, what were they after, how many? That sorta thing." He asked.

Traci shook her head. "We're waiting on the security tapes, and we do have a blood sample," She offered pointing over to where one of the techs was sampling the spots of blood on the floor. She then bit her lip before explaining, "But that could have come from any of the bodies that were worked on during the last day."

"Terrific." Sam muttered unimpressed. "Do we at least know what the hell they took?"

Traci glanced down at her notes again. "Body 1-152014, male, a John Doe."

Sam raised his eyebrows. "A John Doe? Maybe not so unknown huh?"

Traci nodded. "That's our thinking." She and Steve had already put a call in to the pathologist who had been down to work on the body but they hadn't heard back from him yet. "We've sent everything we could find to the forensic lab and put a rush on it, whatever it is about that body they obviously wanted it for a reason."

Sam nodded to her just as Steve came and joined them. He out ranked Sam but there had to be a reason for Best to want him on this. "So?" He asked the detective who was standing there with his hands in his trouser pockets.

Steve sucked in a slow breath and glanced around them. "Whoever they were came for the body, Holly was in a bit of a state when we got here, I tried asking a few questions," He sniffed and shrugged. "I think she went to throw up."

Traci glared at her boyfriend. Holly was a friend and she'd been gagged and tied to a chair for who knows how long. And she wasn't a cop, so Traci was sympathetic to her being a bit emotional over the whole thing.

"Do we know what she was even doing here in the middle of the night?" Sam asked the two detectives.

"I was working in my office." Holly said as she came up behind Sam with Andy beside her. She crossed her arms over her chest and wanted nothing more than to go home and close her eyes, and pretend that this hadn't happened to her.

Sam spun and took in the pathologist, she was pale and her hair was a mess. She was clearly uncomfortable but that was to be expected after what she'd been through. "And is that normal?"

Holly shook her head. "No, I'm normally out of here by 11pm at the latest but I had a report to finish and I didn't want to come in when I had three days off so I stayed and finished it."

"And what time did you finish?"

Holly shook her head again. Right now all she could remember was the gun being pointed at her. She felt her eyes sting again and quickly wiped her hand across her face. "I don't know. Um, it'll be in the system, completed reports are time stamped."

Sam was encouraged by that, it gave them a starting point to piece the events together with. "Okay, so walk us through it, you were in your office, and what happened next?"

Holly glanced around trying to think. She licked her lips and rubbed at her eyes wishing she could get the images in her head to stop. "Um, I…I don't…"

Traci reached over and rubbed her hand up and down Holly's upper arm. "Hey, we can do this in your office or we can take you someplace else, okay?" She said softly even as she felt Sam's glare. She knew it would be best for the investigation to have Holly here and get her to tell them as much as possible, but as her friend Traci hated seeing the other woman like this. Her hands were shaking and she looked like she was struggling just being in this room again.

Holly swallowed hard and tried again. "I just finished my report and I was going to head home. But my coffee was cold and I was tired, so I went," She paused as her mind took her back to that moment when she'd walked out of her office and been crashed into. "Someone knocked me down in the hallway, they grabbed me, my glasses were on the floor, I remember reaching for them."

Traci frowned as she studied her friend. Holly was rubbing at her neck. Traci took a closer look then eyed Sam, she then stepped towards Holly.

"Is that when you got that mark on your neck?" She asked gently.

Holly's hand went to her neck again, but she couldn't remember. "He grabbed me, pinned me against the wall." She told them.

"He?" Sam asked, he expected the people responsible to have been male given how much a dead body could weigh but he needed confirmation and right now Holly was all they had.

"Yeah, he." Holly confirmed with a nod.

Progress. "Okay, what happened after that? How many were in the hall with you?" Sam continued with his questions.

Holly put her shaking hands over her face and then pushed back her hair. "I don't know, I'm not sure, my glasses were…two I think, I mean at least two."

Sam gave Traci a look. The last thing he wanted was for Holly to lose it and give them if, buts and maybe's.

"You know what?" Traci said softly as she placed an arm around Holly's waist and started to guide her away. "Why don't we go to your office, take a breather and then we can talk some more, okay?"

"Yeah, okay." Holly replied and let herself be led away.

Sam watched them until they were out of sight, then he sighed and looked at Steve. "What's Guns and Gangs doing here?" He asked him.

Steve gave Sam a pained look. "The body that was took, the John Doe?" He paused to take a breath before revealing. "I think it's connected to the Dock shooting."

"You're shitting me right?" Sam asked in disbelief. Because that put a huge other spin on tonight. He thought about why the body could be important enough to break into a city morgue for.

"Drug mule?" Sam asked.

Steve nodded his head slowly. "Possibly."

"Well ain't that great!" Sam said with a fake smile and marched back into the autopsy room. He looked around, the crime scene techs were still working away but he wasn't sure what kind of evidence they had, but if this was part of the Dock operation then Gail Peck might have been involved.

Sam turned to Steve with narrowed eyes. "They knew where to go, where the body was." He stepped closer to Steve. "Which means they had inside knowledge of the morgue and there's only one person I know who was at the Docks and would know the inside of this place like the back of her hand." He said watching the older Peck very closely.

"Gail." Andy muttered to herself in shock. Nick had said she was there but she never really believed Gail Peck was capable of being this far involved in crime.

"Yeah, Gail Peck, your sister." Sam directed back at Steve.

Steve took his hands out of his pockets and held them up. "Which is why I'm hands off in this investigation, and why you were called in Sam."

"You don't really think?" Andy asked, not sure how to phrase asking if the woman she worked with for years was now someone they needed to arrest.

Sam snorted and turned to his girlfriend. "Yeah, actually, I do think." And then he turned back to Steve. "If we have her on tape doing this tonight, she's gone Steve." She'd be arrested and jailed not just for the break in, theft of a body and the tying up of Dr Stewart, but if they could connect the body to the Docks, she'd be charged with murder as well.

She'd never get out of a prison cell.

"It is what it is, Sam." Was all Steve could say. He'd tried talking to Gail for a long time after she walked out of 15 but it got him nowhere, eventually he had stopped trying.

And if there was anything to link her to tonight, there was nothing he could do to help her.

xxxxxx

Gail watched from her spot leaning against the side of the van as two of Wolf's guys buried the dead body they had gone to so much trouble getting tonight.

They were far enough out of the city and far enough into the woods that unless it was one of the people here tonight that gave up the location, the body was never going to be found.

"So, that it?" Romi asked as he joined Gail by the van.

Gail sighed and turned to him, tossing what was in her hand over to him. "Not quite, I have to deliver that to its owner." She explained. The sun was just starting to lift into the sky but she was bone tired and there was a long day ahead of her before she could go back to her apartment and get some sleep.

"What is it?" Romi asked, his eyes on a plastic bag about the size of his palm holding what looked to be chunks of stone.

Gail shifted to the window of the passenger's door of the van. "You ready?" She asked Kurt, then eyed the body of Lucky still lying in the back.

Kurt shrugged and started the van up. "I take care of." He told her, flicking his hand behind him at the body. "Then I go, two, maybe three days." He continued before giving her a smile. "Time to drink I think, yes?"

The time to drink was after the job was done, and for Kurt that would be after burying the body and then driving the van over the border, changing the plates and then selling it cheap or leaving it with the keys in the ignition to be taken.

Gail still had to pay Wolf a visit and hand over his package before explaining why Dieter was going to be another man down after tonight.

"I'll see you in a couple of days." She told Kurt and slapped at the door before watching him drive off. She knew Kurt was smart enough to dispose of Alexander without leaving any trace, he'd also done car runs over the Canadian border before and a payoff to the border control ensured that it wouldn't matter that Kurt didn't have the vehicles documents.

"Time to go kid." Gail told Romi as she started walking to the banged up Ford that was supposed to get them back into the city. She'd count herself lucky if there was gas in the tank.

Romi hurried over and got into the passenger seat, the bag still in his hand as Gail started off in the opposite direction from Kurt.

"So, really, what is this?" He asked her again, holding the bag up to her and shaking it a little. The rocks touched and sounded almost like a bag of marbles.

Gail grinned and took the bag from Romi and tossed it onto the dash. "It's more than you'll make in your life. Now be a good boy and find me something on the radio so I don't drive us off a cliff when I fall asleep."

Romi quickly started turning and tuning the radio settings looking for something other than static.

"I could drive, if you want?" He offered his friend.

"Yeah, no." She replied. "We have to drive back through the city to Wolf's bar and if we get spotted by the cops I would rather I was behind the wheel so you don't just pull over and give us up."

"I wouldn't do that." He refuted.

Gail chuckled. "You so would."

xxxxxx

"Everything went well, I assume?" Wolf asked the blonde in front of him after he had cut open and inspected his package, it was all there so he was very pleased.

Gail made a face. "You have your property back."

Wolf stopped smiling and glanced at her with greater interest.

Gail sighed. "There was a lab tech or someone there as we were leaving with the body. I left them alive."

Wolf shifted as he absorbed this information. "And?" He could tell there was more to come.

Gail cleared her throat and straightened her shoulders. "Alexander felt differently, he wanted to kill them, we argued, I got my way, we secured the tech and left. In the van he got angry. Went for his gun, so I killed him."

Wolf stayed quiet, the only other person besides Gail in the room with him was his bodyguard who was always stood with his hand on his gun. The blonde in front of him had placed hers on the table in plain sight before he had even joined her.

"Is this going to be a problem?" He asked her.

Gail shook her head. "Not if they can't connect Alexander to you, he might have bled at the morgue, I'm not sure."

Wolf waved his hand at that, completely unconcerned about one of Dieter's boys being associated with him. "That's nothing. Replaceable." Alexander had only been of use because he could identify the body, beyond that he was just another number in a team, with ten more just like him waiting in line.

"Then we're good." Gail replied quickly.

Wolf nodded and stood, picking up his bag and placed it in his jacket pocket before walking over to Gail. "But if that tech can place you there, then I _will _have a problem. Do you understand me?" He asked her as he locked eyes with her.

In other words, if Gail's contact at 15 suggested she was being fingered for the body snatch then either the tech died or she did. Whatever was needed to keep Wolf off of the police's radar.

"Crystal clear Sir." Gail told him.

Wolf took a close look at the blonde, she didn't seem overly concerned about it either which he took as a good sign. "Here." He reached in and handed one of the stones over to the blonde. "Good work Bravo, now I don't want to see you for a week, you can pick up your pay next time you're in the club."

Gail blinked as he walked out of the room with his shadow. That had gone better than she'd hoped. Wolf had lost a few men in the last few days, she'd thought he'd have been angry at yet another loss to his team.

She looked down at the stone in her hand, it was fairly small, but the uncut diamond was probably worth more than she had made the entire time she had worked at 15. With a shake of her head she tucked it into her jeans and then moved to collect her gun.

As much as she had claimed that things were good and Holly wouldn't be a problem, she had no idea what the pathologist was currently telling detectives.

And there was really only one way to find out.


	8. Chapter 8

**Part 8**

Sam paced up and down the parade room, he had pictures of Damien Wolf and Gail Peck up on the board along with recent pictures of other known and unknown associates, ranging from club workers to people that had been caught with either Gail or Damien during surveillance operations.

"We have to bring her in for questioning at the very least." He told Frank as he eyed the rest of the room.

Detective Jo Rosati was in the back sat with Callaghan listening and she glanced uncomfortably at Luke. Chris, Dov and Andy were also sat in the room.

Frank Best had listened to Sam continue on about his theory that Gail Peck was somehow one of the individuals that had robbed the morgue of a dead body all morning. He had also listened to Superintendent Elaine Peck chew his ear off after a letter of complaint over Officer Collins' treatment of Gail had landed on her desk first thing. She had strongly suggested that he handle his officers properly or someone else would be there by the end of shift today to do it for him.

"Come on Frank, you know she's involved." Sam added as Frank remained in his seat.

Frank sighed and got up. He strode to the front of the room and took Gail's picture off of the board.

He gave Sam a look then dropped the picture onto the desk where his three uniformed officers were sat. "Actually I don't." He answered Sam before looking around at the rest of the faces in the room. "What we do know is that a body has been taken from the morgue and that a member of the forensic team interrupted 'them' and as a result was tied to a chair and gagged for hours."

Frank lifted a hand up to Sam. "Tell me you have finger prints, camera footage of her going in there, a witness statement placing her in the building, something Sam, I need _something_!" He told his friend with a scowl.

"I've had her god damn mother on the phone this morning threatening my job over Nick's stupid stunts and a lawyer that'll have my pension if I bring her in once more without cause!" He shouted into the room, and slammed his hand down onto the desk beside him. "So you give me something to place her there, and I'll have the ETF break down her fucking front door and drag her in here. Until that happens I don't want to hear Gail Peck's name one more time in connection with this case!"

He glared at everyone with steely eyes. "Am I clear?!"

There was a few mumbles and a sigh of defeat from Sam who waved his hands into the air before taking his own seat again.

"Right," Frank took a deep breath and glanced down the row of desks at Jo. "Let's take this from the start, with a fresh pair of eyes," He motioned for Jo to come out front. "And a little less assumption."

Jo cleared her throat and took Frank's place as he sat down. "Okay, so what do we know?" She asked moving to the white board and using the duster to clear it. She picked up a pen and started writing her own thoughts down of the case as she saw it.

"Let's start with the timeline shall we?" She wrote down 3.30am, followed by 4.14am, and then 5.35am. "The security guard is on camera doing his rounds in that hallway at three-thirty, and we know from the computer system that Dr Stewart submitted her report at exactly four-fourteen." She eyed everyone then tapped her pen at the final time point. "But she wasn't found until after rounds at five-thirty, what does this tell us?"

Chris frowned and glanced down at the sheet Sam had handed out. "What happened to the four-thirty check?" He muttered almost to himself.

"Exactly!" Jo smiled and circled the times from 4.14am to 5.35am. "From the evidence that we have and Ms Stewart's statement, she literally bumped into the intruders moments after she sent that report, so why the gap?"

Chris shrugged, his cheeks flushed as he felt under pressure to have the answer to that as the blonde detective stared at him.

Andy frowned. "The static leaves the security cameras around that time, four-twenty eight maybe… maybe he was in the control room and switched them off from there?" She offered timidly, having no idea if that was even possible.

"Good, I like that!" Jo smiled, she needed alternative theories, not just Sam Swarek's insistence that it was all Gail Peck. Jo remembered the blonde from when she first transferred to 15 and Jo hadn't been overly impressed, at the time Andy McNally had been the clear stand out rookie.

"Have we checked into him, what's his name?" She asked, wanting to have it down on the board.

Chris glanced at the sheet again, eager to help but the security guards name was not there.

Frank gave Sam a disapproving look after checking the information on his own sheet.

Sighing Sam shifted in his seat and crossed his arms over his chest. "It's Darren something…" He trailed off as he didn't remember hearing a second name and Sam hadn't actually spoken to the guy either.

This was starting to look sloppy work by him even to Sam.

"I've got it." Dov said as he looked down at his memo book. He hadn't interview the guy but he had gone with him to collect the tapes. "Darren Ritchie, been working there for about three years now."

"Okay then," Jo wrote all of that down. "Now I want a thorough check on this guy, bank accounts, employment history, the works." She told the uniforms who all noted it down. "If we find anything on him it'll give us a reason as to why they knew where to go and why we don't have them on tape."

Frank took a moment and then nodded, it was a strong foundation to work from. Much better than Sam shouting about Gail to everyone. He got up from his chair needing to get back to his own work now that he had Jo starting over with the case. "Get to it then." He told them before catching Sam's eye. "My office."

Sam watched Frank leave and pulled himself to his feet, he went over to Jo. "I'm telling you, you connect that body to the drug bust at the Dock and you've got Gail Peck involved." He told her. "I don't even care if she was the one at the morgue or not, she's all over this, I know it." He maintained.

Jo shrugged. "I've read the report on that Sam, and you have one, one person who_ might_ have saw Peck there. From over a hundred and fifty feet. Looking directly into sets of headlights. And that one person happens to be her ex-boyfriend." She snorted at Sam and shook her head. "Forgive me if I don't hold my breath on anyone else ever saying she was there."

Sam shook his head in denial.

Jo sighed and stepped closer and lowered her voice, Sam might not have been her friend but he was a colleague, and for that alone she thought he deserved a bit of advice. "You got to stop this thing with Peck, Sam. We all miss Jerry, but you've got to move on."

Sam eyed Jo hard for a few seconds then smiled at her. He started to form a response but it stuck in his throat. His best friend was dead and Gail Peck had to answer for that. That's just the way it was.

He spun on his heel and left them to it.

Jo watched him go as Luke joined her. "If he isn't careful Collins won't be the only one facing suspension." She told him.

Luke shrugged. "He's Sam, he'll do it his own way no matter what anyone else tells him." He said as he nudged her shoulder and smiled at her. "Don't you think she's messed up in this?"

Jo shrugged back at him. "I don't really care if she is or if she isn't, I only care about what I can prove and we have nothing to place her at the scene and until we do, we follow what we do have."

Luke grinned at her. He knew she loved being in charge of cases like this, especially given how high profile it'll be if she manages to nail down some suspects. Arresting someone for this case with the possibility of pinning them to the dock shootings and the death of police officers would give the lead detective a free ticket to any job on any task force they wanted.

He knew Jo was professional and wouldn't go after Gail unless she had enough for a warrant, so maybe it was better that she took over from Sam. He watched her go over to the Andy and the others and tell them what she wanted.

Whatever the outcome, they'd do it right.

xxxxxx

Romi looked up from his computer as Gail paced around her apartment. "You're starting to make me nervous Bravo, try sitting down, yeah?" He even patted the cushion beside him but he knew she wasn't going to sit down.

Gail scowled at him then finished the beer in her hand before heading into her kitchen for another.

She twisted off the cap and took a swallow before moving closer to Romi again. "Are you sure you can't be traced?" She asked again. She watched him roll his eyes and continue typing. She frowned at him, even as she knew how good he was at this stuff, she just hated thinking that he could somehow get into serious trouble by doing this for her. She sat down across from him and ran her hand through her hair.

"Look I can get one of Dieter's guys to do this! I shouldn't have even asked you." She said as she shook her head at herself. She hadn't wanted him near this type of thing yet she'd let him come with her on her last job and now he was off somewhere in cyberspace for her, possibly being traced as they were sat there.

Snorting Romi smiled at his friend. "You really want to do something for me, I could do with a beer."

"No." Gail replied with a frown. It was bad enough she let him work in her bar, she wasn't going to encourage his drinking.

"Spoilsport."

Gail sighed and tried to relax as he continued to work. He really did know what he was doing, he'd been offered several jobs with high tech computing companies already, not to mention financial companies that wanted him to develop software algorithms for them.

"Do you know the amount of jail time you would do if you got caught doing this?" She asked him.

Romi looked at her over the screen of his laptop with a twinkle in his eyes. "You going to hand me in?" He asked, clearly amused by her comment. He watched her roll her blue eyes. "You know what they say, once a cop always a cop? Aren't you tempted?" He teased her.

"Shut up." She told him as she tried hard not to laugh. So maybe she did worry too much, but she couldn't help it.

"Hey! I'm in!" Romi told her in surprise as he sat up straighter.

"Already?" Gail asked as she shifted over to see the screen and the information for herself. As she looked over his shoulder there it was, account details with bogus names, assorted bank accounts, stateside and further abroad, it was all there. She nodded to herself, this was some of the information that had been on the cell she had received with her belongings at the station.

Things were definitely moving along now.

"That's a lot of money." Romi said as he checked the figures and did the math in his head.

Gail grinned. "Yeah well, easy come easy go." She reached into her pocket and pulled out a sheet of paper, she carefully unfolded it and put it in front of Romi. "I want these amounts deposited into these accounts, this one," She pointed to the only one that had been circled by her. "You need to do this one on midnight okay?" She stressed.

"Sure." Romi pulled up another window to work from on his computer. "You want me to use more than one of these accounts?" He asked her. "It'd take longer to notice."

Gail was already moving to pull on her jacket, with this taken care of she had something else to go see about. "No, just use one. I want them to notice." She grabbed her cell phone from the table and her keys. "Don't wait up, and remember…"

Romi kept his eyes on what he was doing as he answered, "Midnight, yeah, I got it." He'd given up asking where she was headed to but he had his suspicions. He stuck his hand up and waved it in her direction just before he heard the front door closing shut.

"Not sure what you did to piss off Bravo Mr Hill, but say goodbye to some of your hard earned cash!" Romi muttered as he started emptying one of the accounts on his screen.

xxxxxxx

After making several passes around the apartment building Gail finally entered and made her way to the emergency staircase, using that instead of the lift. While it didn't look like there was anyone watching the building she'd learned not to take chances.

She got off a floor above where she needed to be and had a walk around. The hallways were deserted, which she expected given the time, but it helped her relax. She went down two floors and checked that as well, again it was quiet and nothing set off any alarm bells for her.

Happy she made her way back up the staircase and out onto the floor Holly's apartment was on.

She knew where it was and how to get in, she'd checked the place out a couple of times before when she was checking into Dr Holly Stewart. This time however she was a little more invested.

If Holly had given up her name, she'd have some hard choices to make.

Glancing around once more as she stopped at Holly's front door, Gail pulled out her pick set and quickly set about gaining access to the apartment as quietly as she could. She hadn't spotted Holly's car outside but she wasn't sure how much that meant. She doubted Holly would have been in much state to drive herself home anyway.

Gail hadn't wanted to do what she had to the pathologist but her choices had been very limited at the time and she'd gone with the best idea she had to deal with their unexpected meeting.

She was sure the woman probably hated her and Gail wouldn't be surprised if she had confessed to knowing Gail had been the one to tie her up.

The door clicking open pulled Gail from her thoughts. It was time to start dealing with reality.

Gail slowly eased the door open and stepped in, closing it back over behind her.

The apartment was dark and if it wasn't for the two suitcases Gail spotted beside her she would have thought no one was home, but now she started forward, taking careful steps and keeping her eyes open.

As she came out of the hallway into the living space she noticed the blinds had been opened to let as much street light in as possible. Part of Gail's brain wondered if there was anyone positioned in the building across the street looking in. It made her stop in the shadows, her feet reluctant to continue.

A glance down the corridor and she saw the door to the bedroom. She wondered if Holly could sleep after this morning but maybe she'd gotten some medical help in that area, she was a doctor after all.

A noise from the couch made Gail still and hold her breath, but after a few seconds the blonde was stepping closer, not further away.

Just as she could see over the back of the couch Gail spotted Holly curled up asleep with a throw pulled tight around her. Her glasses were still on her face and her expression wasn't relaxed at all.

Softly Gail moved closer, her eyes cautiously flicking to the windows directly in front of her but she'd already come too far into the room now. If anyone was watching Gail had already been seen.

Carefully Gail kept coming, stopping every time Holly shifted restlessly, only to start moving again seconds later when Gail was sure the other woman hadn't woken.

Eventually Gail found herself stood in front of Holly looking down at her.

She sighed, thinking back to the suitcases out in the hallway. It was clear to the blonde that Holly had every intension of leaving the apartment tomorrow. Gail just had no idea if that would be for good or not, maybe Holly was going to stay with a friend or at a hotel?

But one thing it did mean was that Holly hadn't given her name to the police, not yet anyway. If she had they would have burst in here the moment Gail was close enough to cause real harm to the pathologist.

Gail took a seat on the coffee table and watched. She wandered what was going through the woman's head right now, and why she was out here instead of in her bedroom.

Holly shifted again, this time bringing her hand up to her face before turning onto her side with a groan.

Gail winced at how awkward the brunette looked. Carefully Gail reached over and gently eased the glasses off of Holly's face and set them down on the table beside her.

She needed to talk to Holly but maybe that could wait a few more hours.

Holly shifted again and it made Gail sigh, she hated that the woman was obviously having trouble sleeping and that she had been the cause of that distress.

"You weren't supposed to be there." She whispered to Holly before softly moving a few strands of hair out of the way of Holly's face as she stared at the other woman.

Waking her could wait for now Gail decided, as she got to her feet carefully.

First she had to look for some sort of clue as to where Holly was taking off to. If Gail couldn't do that tonight she'd have to get Romi over with her car and she'd have to follow her wherever she went.

As Gail stepped away from the couch and Holly she decided to leave the suitcases alone for now and try finding Holly's purse first. And as the hall table was empty Gail turned and started for the bedroom.

Something caught Gail's attention then, a noise or a shift in the air maybe. It made her start to turn back around just as she was struck on the head with enough force to knock her to the ground. The pain from the hit made her head spin but Gail shifted as quickly as she could onto her back just in time to raise and arm to deflect the second swing of a baseball bat.

Cursing herself for not bringing a weapon Gail did the only thing she could when Holly looked ready to take another swing at her, she kicked out with her feet. And she got lucky, catching Holly off balance and causing her to drop the bat and stumble away from her.

As the bat rolled passed her, Gail struggled over onto her hands, trying to get to her feet but a sharp pain shot up one arm causing her to bring it up to her chest. She got on to her knee and used her good arm to push up from the floor, but she was hit with a wave of nausea that made her collapse against the wall and do everything she could not to throw up.

After a moment she opened her eyes and looked across to see Holly on the floor a few feet away, staring back at her with terrified eyes. It made her clench her jaw tight and slump down. If Holly was going to call the cops, Gail was in no position to stop her, she probably wasn't in any condition to stand anytime soon either.

She groaned pitifully as another round of nausea hit her. She heard Holly move but Gail kept her eyes shut as tears stung them from the pain ringing in her head. She cradled her sore arm to her chest and then lifted her other hand up to the back of her head, not surprised at all when she felt blood.

"I fucking _hate_ baseball!"

xxxxxx

**AN**/

Did you guys see the pics of Gail/Holly Aliyah/Charlotte?

Awesome or what?

Go check them out on tumblr or twitter if you haven't already!


	9. Chapter 9

**Part 9**

Holly scrambled to her feet and flicked the light switch on. Even without her glasses she recognised that sat on her floor, leaning against the hallway wall was the figure of Gail Peck.

She had _hit_ Gail Peck over the head with her baseball bat. It made her eyes widen as she stared down at the blonde and the blood on her hand.

Gail groaned at the sudden brightness and covered her eyes with her good hand, she thought she heard a gasp somewhere near her but the pounding of her heartbeat was so loud in her ears she couldn't be sure. And she wasn't sure how much she cared right now, honestly the ETF could be breaking down the door and making their way into the apartment right then and Gail wouldn't have moved an inch.

She whimpered and dropped to her side, turning her face into the wall to try and shield herself from the blinding pain the light was causing to her eyes.

Then something touched the sore spot on her head causing her to moan in agony, her head jerking away from the touch as she tried to swat the probing fingers away with her hand.

"Don't." She warned as the agonizing touches continued.

Holly swallowed down the impulse to leave the blonde alone on hearing the pain in her voice but the doctor in her forced her to continue her examination. Blows to the head could be life threatening and she needed to check Gail properly before deciding on what to do next.

Part of her of course had planned on calling Traci and Steve but the bigger voice in her head was telling her to make sure Gail wasn't hurt, and calling the police, even her brother was going to cause trouble for the blonde even if Holly had left her name out of her statement on the incident at the morgue.

As she checked for depressions and abnormalities around the split skin on Gail's head, Holly realised she wanted to understand the blonde and it made her frown at herself. She'd watched the ex-cop get arrested in front of her at The Black Penny just a few nights ago, heard all the stories of her criminal involvement and yet like an idiot, she still wasn't rushing to call the police.

This woman had broken into her house while she slept and had tied her to a chair in the morgue while the guy with Gail waved a gun at her!

There had to be something wrong with her. Holly shook her head and tried to focus on what she was doing, if she got this wrong the consequences could be devastating for the blonde.

"Oww!" Gail muttered as she felt a pinch to her scalp. "What the fuck?" Her nausea had subsided for the moment but that didn't make her eager to move or even open her eyes.

"Hold still." Holly said as kept the wound closed with one hand and checked the first aid kit with the other. She had grabbed it from the bathroom when she'd gone for her glasses. She had a suture kit and some glue as well as bandages and an antibiotic spray, what she didn't have was painkillers. Not that she would have given painkillers to Gail, head injuries needed careful monitoring and you couldn't do that if the patient was out of it.

Holly frowned as she saw the bleeding continue. "I'm going to have to stitch this."

Gail rolled her eyes under their lids. "And you're what, waiting for my opinion Doc?" She muttered.

Holly shook her head but pulled out everything she needed. "This is going to hurt." She warned the blonde.

Gail snorted. "Like it doesn't already, just get on with it." She growled as the pounding in her head increased again making her nausea return. "I think I'm going to puke."

Holly's eyes widened but there wasn't much she could about it, and what was a little sick considering the blood on her wall and on the carpet?

She sighed and got up from her crouched position, willing to leave Gail for a moment while she snatched the waste basket from the kitchen and placed it down in front of the blonde.

Gail pushed the waste basket away and leaned down to rest her head on the carpet. "Would you put that fucking light out!" She cried as tears stung and she couldn't hold them back as she did her best to concentrate on her breathing in an attempt not to throw up. She was pretty sure being sick right now wasn't going to make her headache any better.

The light went out.

She sighed at the darkness and moved to lay on her stomach where she was, her eyes staying firmly closed. With the hammering in her skull she just wanted to make it stop but she didn't know how. She felt another, softer touch to her head again and whined in protest.

"Sorry." Holly said as she carefully placed a dressing to the wound she'd tried her best to clean. It was still bleeding but head wounds tended to look worse than they were. She shifted closer to the blonde and picked up the blonde's wrist to check her heart rate.

"That's my one good arm, be kind." Gail mumbled as she gave up fighting and just let the pathologist do what she wanted.

Holly tried not to smile, the blonde certainly wasn't going to like the next few moments. Satisfied Gail was relatively stable Holly pulled the small flash light she had in her kit out and stuck it in her mouth as she picked up the needle and slowly began the process of closing over the wound.

She was surprised that Gail only made a few sounds of discomfort while she worked but then, she had seen the scar on Gail's face and knew the blonde had to have had some experience with pain without medication.

"Almost done." She told the blonde as she put the torch down and worked on the sixth and final stitch.

Gail just offered a grunt in reply, the throbbing in her head wasn't likely to stop just because Holly had made sure her brain wasn't going to drip out onto the floor. Besides, right now her arm was hurting just as much if not more so.

"Well good cause… broken arm." She reminded the doctor with a lift of said arm.

Holly smiled as she cut the last thread. "I'll get to that."

"Just saying." Gail answered back before turning her head into the carpet.

Holly shook her head and put everything back away in her kit. "Do you think you can stand up for me?" She asked as she put her hands under Gail's arms and helped her up ignoring the moans of protest at the change in position.

"Come on, just a few steps." Holly said encouragingly as she helped Gail over to the couch. "Sit."

Gail sighed and did as she was told, mainly because she wasn't sure she could keep standing given how much the room felt like it was spinning.

Carefully she relaxed into the cushions as Holly wandered away again.

The pain of having the stitches put in was minor compared to the continued pounding of her head but Gail tried to swallow it down and focus, she wasn't sure how much time she had before the police showed up.

She blinked when she felt Holly return and move her, slipping her arm through her leather jacket to take it off.

"Oww, ow, ow!" Gail muttered as Holly pulled her hurt arm through as well. She tried to scowl at the pathologist. "I'm not dead yet you know!" She reminded her. "Your bedside manner needs a shit load of work."

Holly pursed her lips to keep from smiling. Then she focused just on Gail's arm. From the light shining into the room she could already see a bruise appearing as well as swelling from tissue damage. It made her feel a little ill knowing this was damage she had inflicted.

She ran her hands gently over the limb, pausing to hold it by the elbow with one hand as the other moved down to support Gail's hand. "Wiggle your fingers for me."

Gail rolled her eyes. "Seeing as you asked so nicely." She replied before attempting the action. It hurt like hell but all her fingers moved. "That's good right?"

"Hmm." Holly frowned and turned the forearm so Gail's hand faced palm up.

"Oww!" Gail would have snatched her arm away from Holly if it wouldn't have hurt even more, instead she glared at the older woman.

"Wiggle them again." Holly instructed Gail without even glancing at her.

Gail was very tempted to slap Holly with her good hand just for asking her to do what she knew was going to be excruciatingly painful for her, but finally she relented and with a sigh, moved her fingers about quickly.

Holly grunted and then moved the limb as gently as she could up and across Gail's chest. "Try and keep it in this position." That would help with the swelling but the pain was something Gail would just have to deal with for now. "Nothing's broken, it's just bruised muscle. You got lucky."

It would have been so easy to break Gail's arm. Holly knew she could swing harder than most guys she used to play with. The leather jacket must have taken a lot of the blow.

Holly fought down bile as she lifted her glasses up to rub at her eyes. She wasn't sure what was worse, the fear she'd felt realising someone else was in her apartment with her, or knowing that her reaction to that could have killed the blonde in front of her.

If the swing to Gail's head had connected the way Holly had meant it to, Gail would likely have severe brain damage at the very least.

"You are so fucking lucky." She muttered again as she slumped down onto the floor next to the couch as tears stung her eyes. She wasn't a violent person, she'd rather hand over her purse to a mugger than try and resist.

She stared down at her hands and noticed how badly they were shaking.

"You wouldn't have stopped hitting me if you hadn't lost hold of the bat, huh?" Gail asked softly, already knowing the answer, she watched Holly's wide, tear filled eyes flick to hers. "It's amazing what a person is capable of when they have little choice." She told the other woman with a half-smile.

Holly licked her lips and shifted closer to the blonde. She stared at the woman, not understanding this person sat in front of her but finding that she very much wanted to. She wanted to know why she and the man with the gun had broken into the morgue, why they were stealing a body, and why she had almost been shot for getting in their way.

Gail was tired, she wasn't sure she could keep her eyes open for much longer. "Shouldn't the cops be here by now?" The brunette had had several opportunities to have called already, it was puzzling the blonde that no one had arrived yet.

Holly got onto her knee and placed her hand on Gail's thigh as she leaned over and opened an eyelid.

"God, what?" Gail moaned as Holly took liberties with her yet again. She groaned as Holly stared into one eye then did the same to her other one. "Happy now, can I get some sleep?" At least until the door was broken down and she was hauled away in cuffs. She pouted at the thought of her arm being pulled behind her back, that wasn't going to be any fun at all.

Holly sighed, it didn't seem like Gail's pupils were unresponsive but that didn't rule out brain injury. She would have liked to have taken the blonde to the emergency room just to be safe but she was sure the blonde would never allow that.

Knowing it wasn't worth arguing over Holly reached for a cushion and placed it under Gail's elevated arm to help keep it in place.

"Yeah, okay." She told the blonde quietly, her tone subdued.

Gail shifted into a more comfortable spot before eyeing Holly carefully. "You're not going to poke at me the minute I close my eyes again are you?"

Holly had shifted to sit at the other end of the couch and just watch the blonde sleep. "No." She replied, although the warning look she was getting from the blonde made it very tempting. Unlike stories on the internet, head injuries didn't require hourly checks, although close monitoring was advised. As the eye stayed on her she smiled and gave the blonde a helpless shrug before conceding, "Maybe."

Gail grunted and leaned her head back, careful of the stitches. "Shoulda just finished me off."

"Don't tempt me." Holly answered back.

"I could sue, you know, pretty sure this counts as attempted murder." Gail sassed at the doctor.

Holly snorted, if Gail wasn't as badly hurt as she was she would have thrown the cushion in her lap at her.

"I think you'll find the law on breaking and entering might trump my reaction to the intruder." Holly replied.

Gail grinned as she kept her eyes closed, she couldn't really refute that. "Well, it wasn't like you would have let me in if I'd knocked, would you?" She popped open an eye again, curious of the answer.

"You'll never know." Holly replied with a shrug.

Gail tried not to giggle, knowing it would do nothing for her headache. "Next time I might try that."

Gail sighed and felt herself start to drift off. It was strange, she'd never usually allow herself to fall asleep in front of a stranger but here she was doing just that.

She had no idea what was going to happen when she opened her eyes again, especially given the suitcases by the door, would Holly even still be there?

"We need to talk, so no running away." She muttered towards Holly.

Holly stayed still until she was sure the blonde was asleep. Only then did she get up and head into the kitchen, there was no way she'd be able to sleep after this. She switched on her coffee machine then wandered back out into the hall.

She went over to the front door and checked it but it was still locked, that surprised her, there was no sign of how Gail had got in. Actually that scared her to death, she usually felt safe being in her apartment alone it was why she hadn't accepted Traci's offer of staying over tonight.

Holly shook her head, reasoning that Gail had trained as a police officer so must know some tricks, like breaking and entering. She then walked down the hallway to where she had attacked Gail, there was no other way to explain how she had acted, she'd attacked the figure in the dark with every intention of inflicting as much harm as possible to make sure she wasn't a victim again.

She spotted the blood on the wall, she'd have to clean that up and the carpet.

She wandered back into the kitchen and made herself that coffee, cleaning could wait for now, it wasn't like she had anything else to do with her time.

Walking back over to Gail with her mug, she picked up her cell phone and scrolled to her flight reservation, she'd been due to leave at 6.30am, with a sigh she flicked into a few pages and then cancelled her booking, not caring about the penalty fee she would have to pay.

She sipped her drink and eyed the blonde drooling on her couch. Gail was right, they did need to talk. Holly didn't want to spend another night this afraid again.

And besides, she could always catch a later flight.


	10. Chapter 10

**Part 10**

Gail shifted, blinking her eyes open. "Shit, fuck!" She groaned, feeling her body ache everywhere as she took in the surrounds and realised that she wasn't in her own apartment. A quick, painful glance to her right and the figure on the other end of the couch and it all started coming back to her.

And then she remembered; Holly Stewart.

Holly Stewart and a baseball bat, oh, she remembered the baseball bat all right, in fact her whole body remembered the fucking baseball bat.

With a grunt of pain and a momentary wobble, Gail got to her feet. Sparing a slower glance at the pathologist Gail made her way gingerly into the kitchen, pulling out her cell phone as she went.

Holly must have closed the blinds after she'd fallen asleep because it was dark, but her cell let her know that it was almost 6am and she had missed calls and text messages from Romi. That boy did worry sometimes, she had told him she could be late, he also reminded her of her meeting in his last text.

"Fuck!" Gail groaned as she walked into the table. "Shit that hurt." She muttered as she rubbed at her thigh. With a limp she made her way over to what looked like a professional coffee maker, which was a score because Gail Peck practically lived on coffee.

It took a while but Gail eventually got it started and after a nosey in the cupboards and the fridge she had found the milk and sugar to go in it.

Her head was still really sore but Gail figured once the coffee was in her system life would be good again. Which, if the machine had its way might be never, it was making a humming sound but Gail wasn't sure if that was it starting or if the thing was in the throes of death.

She gave it a hard smack with the wrong hand and had to stifle a sharp cry of pain, she had forgotten about that what with her raging headache taking precedence right now.

"Fuck it." She muttered, leaving the kitchen and heading for the bathroom.

Holly yawned and stretched as she woke. It took a second before she was upright and looking around for Gail, who she was supposed to be watching closely because of the head injury. She must have fallen asleep.

Spotting the empty couch, Holly got up and ventured towards the kitchen where she could hear her coffee machine was already on. But before she crossed the threshold a noise further into her apartment caught her attention and made her change direction.

She walked over to the doorway and peaked in, pleased to find Gail up and about and clearly not dead. Still.

The blonde was moving things about her cupboard where Holly kept all her cleaning supplies.

"What are you doing?" She asked the blonde quietly as her back was to Holly and she didn't want to startle her.

Gail rolled her eyes as she glanced back over her shoulder. "What does it look like Doc?" She asked before going back to her searching. But it seemed useless, she'd already check everywhere else in the room. Standing she walked over to a nervous looking Holly and pouted.

"My head hurts and I can't find a fucking painkiller anywhere in this place."

Holly tried not to smile as she fixed her glasses. And to think the woman in front of her was supposed to be some sort of criminal mastermind.

"I don't keep any in the house, sorry." She told the blonde with a touch of regret, she knew after such a heavy blow to the head patients could suffer from severe headaches for weeks afterwards.

"Fuck." Gail growled in annoyance. Her morning wasn't looking up. "Your coffee better be shit hot." She warned the woman as she passed by her and carefully made her way back into the kitchen. She didn't bother pretending she was going to make anything as she sat stubbornly at the table and scowled at Holly as she followed her in moments later.

Holly stepped over to the coffee machine which had yet to finish and leaned back against the counter as she took in Gail's complexion. "You know coffee probably isn't the best thing for you right now." She tried, hoping to maybe get the blonde to agree to water or some fruit juice.

Gail glared at Holly with narrowed eyes, very close to throwing a full on tantrum. "I'll take coffee, milk and two sugars." She insisted.

"But it really would be better if-"

"Holly?" Gail said as she cut the pathologist off. "I can have someone here in less than ten minutes with a gun, and I will blow my brains out right here in your kitchen if you don't give me my fucking cup of coffee." She warned.

Holly opened then closed her mouth as her eyes widened. Then she shook her head and lifted up her hands, if Gail wanted coffee and a worse headache than she had right now, who was Holly to stop her?

"Drama queen." Holly muttered loud enough to be heard as she turned slightly to fix the drink for the blonde invading her house.

Gail fought the grin but as she caught Holly glancing at her she couldn't help but break and let out a chuckle. "Killer." She answered back, if there was going to be name calling Gail could live with the best of them having had years of practise.

Holly grinned as she turned and set the mug down in front of Gail and sat down opposite her. "That's attempted killer and don't forget it." She replied back with a giggle before she wondered what on earth she was doing, this was Gail Peck. The same Gail Peck that broke into her apartment last night and scared her half to death.

Gail watched the brunette shake her head and wondered what the woman was thinking. She paused about to sip the coffee and sent Holly a questioning look. "There's no arsenic in here is there?"

Holly grinned but refused to answer, thinking maybe that would prevent Gail from drinking it.

Gail sighed then took a tentative sip, and she was pleasantly surprised by how nice it tasted. She happily went back and took a bigger drink.

Holly watched on then shook her head. "You're going to regret that."

Gail shrugged. It might just be psychosomatic but she swore she could already feel the radiating pain in her head lessening.

Holly didn't want to ask, she really didn't because the potential answer petrified her, but she couldn't take the not knowing.

"Why are you here Gail?" She asked quietly as she nibbled on her bottom lip.

Gail sighed and sat her coffee down, taking the time to glance at her cell. She'd have to get going soon. She looked back at Holly.

"I need to know what you said to the police." She told her.

Holly frowned. "That's all? You're not here to…" She swallowed hard. After the gun was pointed into her face, she was sure this would only end one way. They had both seen her, knew she could give the police information about them, even if she hadn't, why would criminals believe anything she said?

Gail rolls her eyes and goes back to her coffee. "Out with it, and please don't lie, no one's going to hurt you no matter what you told anyone." She tried to assure Holly. She remembered the tossing and turning she was doing last night when she had found her sleeping on the couch.

Holly bit her lip, thinking. "He had a gun." She couldn't help but remind the blonde.

He's also dead. "He did his part and has move on, you won't ever see him again, I promise." She offered although she wasn't sure how much that would mean to the doctor.

Holly leaned onto the table heavily. It didn't matter what Gail said, the memory of that gun was still too fresh to discount it, he had clearly decided that killing her would have solved his problem of her being there.

"What makes you so sure?" She asked in a shaky whisper, her eyes begging the blonde for an answer.

Gail closed her eyes, her headache was definitely coming back full force. She opened her eyes to see tears gathering in the brown orbs in front of her. Dammit.

"He's dead."

Holly sat back in her chair with a gasp.

Gail tapped the floor nervously with her foot, unable to look at Holly anymore after admitting that Alexander was dead. She wondered briefly if Holly realised that she was the one that had killed him, maybe she did, maybe that was why she had shifted as far away from her as she could without getting up.

Gail swallowed and picked up her cell phone again, she really did have to go.

"Holly just forget about him, okay? I really need to know what you told the cops." She repeated.

Holly shifted in her seat again and took off her glasses to rub at her eyes. "Uh, not much…there really wasn't anything helpful I could give them." She put her glasses back on and noticed the dubious look she was getting from the blonde. "When one of you knocked me over I lost my glasses, I told Sam and Traci that my vision was blurry, all I know was that I was taken into the lab and tied to the chair by two people, only one of whom talked and I could tell he was male. That was it, they left and I was trapped there with a fucking hood over my head for over an hour. An hour Gail!"

The blonde had sworn to her the guard was due any minute as she placed that hood over her head.

Gail scratched her cheek to break the red hot glare she was receiving, and it was _totally_ hot.

"The guard?"

"Never showed up until after 5.30 according to Traci, I wouldn't know I had a _hood_ over my head!" She said glaring again.

Gail chuckled already knowing this and knowing it worked heavily in her favour. "Ow, what'd you kick me for?" She asked Holly.

"You know exactly why."

Gail rolled her eyes. "Yes, let's play that game, hmm, I tied you up for an hour and you scarred me for life as you attempted to kill me." She said and lifted her hands up as she asked, "So tell me, of the two of us, who has the right to be more pissed?"

Holly crossed her arms over her chest. "I still didn't like it." She muttered.

Gail wondered if the other woman listened to herself at all. Of course she wasn't going to like being tied up but seriously? She could have killed Gail last night.

"Tough. And I hope all my blood stains your apartment and never comes out." She said only just managing not to stick her tongue out at Holly.

"What do you think I spent last night doing?"

"Oh." Bummer. Of course it also meant that Gail wouldn't be leaving trace evidence of her little visit. Then Gail looked at the mug she was drinking from and thought, DNA and fingerprints.

She finished her coffee then pushed the empty mug over to the forensic pathologist. "There you go, evidence, you can plant it at some horrible crime scene and I'm sure the City will give you a medal."

And with that Gail got up. From what Holly had told her she gave them very little to go on and she already knew from Chris they were looking into the security guard. So if Romi had remembered the midnight money transfer she could lead the detectives on a nice little goose chase to keep them busy.

"Where are you going?" Holly asks as she follows Gail out into the living area where she watches the blonde pull on her jacket slowly, obviously still in some discomfort. "And what the hell was that about framing you for a crime? I'd never do that!" She told Gail, insulted that the blonde would think she was capable of such a thing.

Gail shrugged and headed for the door. "Do what you want Holly."

"Wait, where are you going?" Holly asked again as Gail opened her apartment door.

Gail sighed and turned back. "I have a meeting I have to get to, so while this has been so much fun, I'm going to love you and leave you. Have a nice trip," She pointed at the suitcases still sitting by the door waiting. "Bye."

Holly watched the door close behind the blonde then groaned and grabbed for her coat. "Dammit."

Gail wasn't waiting by the elevators so Holly went over to the stairs and looked over the railing. "Hey, Gail, wait up." She called out then headed down to join the blonde as she reached the ground floor.

"What are you doing?" Gail asked, totally confused beyond the brain fuzz her headache was causing.

Holly licked her lips then gestured to Gail's head. "You shouldn't be out with your injury, actually you should be resting in bed somewhere."

Gail couldn't help but smirk as they made their way out of Holly's building. "Was that an offer?" She asked and the sudden blush it caused on Holly made her laugh. Which she regretted instantly as she head reminded her that Holly's advice was probably warranted.

"Shut up." Holly muttered with a shake of her head wondering how the blonde could be so annoying all of the time and still she was following her to make sure she was okay. "So where are we going? Do you have a car, you shouldn't be driving as hurt as you are, I guess-"

Gail groaned and reached up to cover her ears. "So many words." She complained.

Holly snapped her jaw closed and sent the blonde a glare, she was only trying to help.

Grinning Gail gestured towards the end of the block where, in the distance they could see trees.

"There's a café near the park down there, I have to meet someone," Then she glanced sideways to Holly and a sly grin broke out on her face. "I guess you could join us?"

"Oh." Join them. What did that mean, did Holly want to put herself in a position like that?

Gail glanced around again, trying to check without Holly noticing that she was looking for signs that they were being followed but it looked clear. She then noticed the look on Holly's face and her grin widened.

"Scared?"

Holly turned to the blonde and shrugged. "I guess I could join you, of course that means that you're paying right?" Gail had told her she was safe, and for some reason Holly believed her.

Gail wanted to laugh, she really did, but it would hurt her head too much she just knew it. "Getting brave are we?" She asked smiling at the other woman.

Holly took a breath trying to get back the confidence she normally had, the confidence she'd had until being attacked in the morgue. She smiled at Gail and shrugged. "I took you didn't I?" She said cockily.

"Ooooh, that's big talk for someone that hits from behind."

Holly sniffed and made a face. "Still counts."

"Whatever." Gail muttered as she continued to keep a careful watch around them as they slowly made their way down the street.

"We can always have a rematch if you like? Baseball bats at 12 o'clock."

Gail scowled at the smile on Holly's face. She'd already told the woman she hated the sport.

Holly chuckled and looked off into the distance. "You know I normally run in that park every morning?"

Shit. Gail had forgotten about that.

"Yeah?" Gail asked, trying to sound uninterested.

"Yes, but I guess you don't like running either, huh?"

"Nope, it's why they made me give my badge back." She told the brunette, "I wouldn't get out of the car for anything but a doughnut."

That got a laugh from Holly and Gail liked hearing it.

She eyed Holly, wondering what she would make of the meeting with Chris.

If nothing else it was going to be a very interesting morning.


	11. Chapter 11

**Part 11**

Gail held the door open and gestured Holly into the small café that had only recently opened for the day's business. A quick look around and Gail spotted two other customers in the place, one of whom being Chris who was sat at the far end in an out of the way booth.

The other person, a woman in some sort of horrible, cotton blend grey suit, with a cell phone in one hand and the morning paper in the other, was sat at the counter running along the left side of the café. Gail gave her a very suspicious look as she placed her hand on the small of Holly's back and eased her towards Chris.

The waitress caught Gail's eye and the blonde pointed to where she was headed.

Gail ignored Chris' stunned look as his eyes flitted between Holly and her nervously as she slid into the booth letting Holly follow after her. This way Gail could turn and put her back to the window and not only have a view of Holly, but also of the woman at the counter and of the door so she could track the comings and goings.

Satisfied with her view, Gail turned to her table mates as she noticed the waitress head over.

By silent agreement they all placed orders of breakfast and coffee, although this time Gail went with orange juice and chose to ignore the smirk Holly shot her as the waitress headed back towards the kitchen.

Gail rolled her eyes at the pathologist then pointed at Chris who was still wide eyed and nervous.

"Holly Chris, Chris Holly. But you both already know that, huh?" She added with a grin wondering if she could get them to talk to each other or if they were planning on just pretending the other wasn't there.

"Uh, yeah, I mean… hi, Dr Stewart." Chris said, stumbling over his words as he tried to give Holly a smile.

"Morning Officer Diaz." Holly replied softly with a curious look at Gail.

Gail and Chris winced at that.

"Sorry." Holly whispered and ducked her head down, only now realising that maybe she should be careful of what she said.

Gail sighed. "It's fine, just, you know, kinda awkward." She told the pathologist in an attempt to explain.

"I can imagine." Holly muttered back, sending a grin Gail's way just as the waitress returned with their drinks.

Chris looked between the pair. "So, uh, you two know each other?" He asked, partly to make conversation and also because he knew the pathologist was friends with Traci and Steve. And Chris _knew_ Gail wasn't on speaking terms with her brother, so this was just all kinds of strange.

Gail snorted and sipped at her juice. "Oh, yeah Chris, we know each other so well that when you get in this morning you're going to do a travel check on Dr Stewart here."

Chris' eyes widened as Holly's mouth dropped open in shock.

"Check her credit cards for recent transactions, probably air travel, probably to Vancouver." Gail continued instructing her friend.

Chris looked at the brunette who looked to be getting angry. He sipped at his coffee and turned to Gail. "Or I could just ask Traci?" He offered as an alternative to intrusive checks.

Gail grinned. "Or you could just ask Traci." She agreed.

Holly delayed her reaction as the waitress returned with plates of food.

Gail wasted little time tucking in as did Chris.

"Or you could just ask me?" Holly said into the quiet after realising that there was probably very little that the blonde didn't already know about her.

Gail sighed and shifted in her seat as a figure entering the café caught her attention. "That'll spoil my fun Doc, and plus, Chris has to earn his keep."

"That's true." Chris quickly agreed as he stood and a young man Holly vaguely recognised slid in across from Gail as Chris sat back down.

"Holly Romi, Romi Holly Stewart." Gail gestured between Holly and the newcomer as she quickly used the distraction to eat more of her breakfast as she enjoyed the lack of nausea she was experiencing at the moment.

"Hi!" Romi greeted the older woman as he swiped Chris' coffee just as the waitress came over and Romi quickly gave her his order. "I'll have what he's having."

As the waitress walked away Gail watched the way Chris looked at Romi and the way Romi responded by leaning into her friend and saying something too quiet for her to hear but it made Chris redden.

"God, get a room." She muttered to herself but couldn't quite hold back her grin as she continued watching them. Romi had pulled out his cell phone and was showing Chris something on it. Gail watched as Chris put his hand on the back of the booth behind Romi's head and shifted closer than he needed to be.

Holly tilted her head and took in the pair across from her and the mutterings of Gail. Oh. Now she could see it. The way their eyes lit up as they both chuckled and stared at each other briefly, trying not to be obvious.

Holly grinned and nudged the blonde beside her who was now staring forlornly into her orange juice.

"Are they?" She asked softly as blue eyes lifted.

Gail rolled her eyes and then looked back over. She watched Chris attempt to retrieve his coffee but it was half-hearted at best as Romi put one arm out to block Chris and used the other to move the mug further out of reach.

Gail then looked at Holly. "If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck?"

Holly chuckled and nodded. "It's a duck." She then deliberately lifted her own coffee up to her mouth by way of Gail's nose and tried not to laugh as she drank while being on the receiving end of a venomous scowl.

"That was just mean." Gail complained as Holly sat her drink back down.

Holly grinned enjoying her torment of the blonde. As Chris and the new arrival seemed otherwise occupied Holly turned to Gail and raised an eyebrow. "So if they're ducks, and I'm a duck, what does that make you?" She asked, wondering if the blonde was in a sharing mood. Gail was hard to read and Holly had no idea what kind of interest the blonde had in her, if it was purely fact finding about her statement to Detective Swarek then she probably could have found that out from Chris.

Gail smiled at Holly, her eyes dancing as she wondered how best to reply to that.

"What was that about ducks?" Romi asked as the waitress returned with his plate and coffee. His coffee however was currently being drunk by Chris in retaliation to his own theft.

Gail held Holly's eyes for a moment longer, before she went back to finishing her pancakes. "Nothing." She said in answer to Romi.

Holly shook her head but was smiling as she returned to her own food.

Romi looked between the women then shrugged and started eating as well.

"Hey, isn't this where you spotted that cute brunette the other week?" Chris asks Gail as he points out the window towards the park across the road from them.

Gail blushed and kicked her foot out under the table.

"Ow!" Chris complained as he leant down to rub at his knee. "I was just saying!"

Romi frowned at Gail before asking Chris if he'd live.

"Its fine, I'm on desk today anyway." He told Romi as he glared at Gail.

Holly watched the back and forth before glancing out the window and looking across at the park, she then took note of the blush still colouring Gail Peck's normally pale face. Also the fact that the blonde was steadfastly keeping her head down clued her into what, or maybe who, Chris had got into trouble for mentioning.

She leaned over and whispered into a red tinged ear. "Cute huh?"

Gail shrugged indifferently. "Just some fitness freak."

"Fitness freak huh?" Now Holly was enjoying herself. "Probably the kind that likes softball too then."

Gail bit her lip to keep her grin under control but it was a hard task.

"Never can trust those sporty types." Holly continued but she was aware of the curious looks she was getting from the pair across the table.

Gail snorted. "And doesn't my head know it." She replied as she reached up to touch the spot as she was reminded of her headache.

"Don't touch it!" Holly admonished as she batted Gail's hand away earning herself another glare, although this time she felt it was justified.

"Touch what?" Romi asked as he paused and looked questioningly to Gail. "Bravo?"

"Bravo?" Holly repeated as she glanced at Gail with a frown.

Sighing Gail put down her cutlery and tilted her head down and moved some hair back to show Romi and Chris what would likely be a nice new scar for her growing collection.

"Who the fuck did that?!" Romi demanded as he glared hard at the brunette sitting with them. "And why is she even here?"

Gail settled back in her seat. "Calm down." She told her friend softly as she saw the concern building in Chris' expression as well. It was nice to know they both cared but she was fine, a little head rattle wasn't going to do much to slow her down even if it was playing havoc with her caffeine addiction.

Gail frowned when she glanced at Holly and noticed her fidget under the stares from Chris and Romi. She glared at the pair until they stopped. "I said _enough_!" She snapped at them firmly, not in the mood for macho ego or misplaced loyalty.

She'd broken into Holly's apartment in the middle of the night and got exactly what was coming to her. End of fucking story.

Satisfied when they toned down the looks at Holly Gail knocked elbows with the doctor. "You know I just seem to have this effect on some people," She told Holly as she smirked at Romi, who knew what she was about to bring up and looked less than thrilled at the reminder. "Romi here has an older brother Anan, now he really beat the shit out of me." She continued to inform Holly with a smile. "Six weeks in the hospital, _after_ I was lying there unconscious for three days."

Holly was horrified by this and felt guilt-ridden that she hadn't insisted on taking Gail to the hospital last night for a proper check-up on her injuries. "Oh my god!" She muttered astounded by the way Gail was revealing this information, like she was talking about a cut on her hand or something equally benign. "You really need to get checked out. At a hospital Gail, you should have a CAT scan, head injuries can be-"

Gail reached over and held Holly's hand as she saw the panic raising in her eyes. "Holly?"

"No! You could be haemorrhaging right now and we wouldn't even know, _you_ wouldn't know, you'd just be here talking and the next you'd be dead! Look, I know people that can get you seen to right now, please, please Gail?!" Holly pleaded desperately with the blonde as her eyes stung.

"Okay, okay." Gail conceded, her eyes on Holly until she saw her start to relax now that she had agreed to being checked over. Personally Gail couldn't believe she had just given in considering how much she hated hospitals. A glance at Chris and Romi and it looked like they were both in agreement with Holly on going to hospital.

Traitors.

She kept hold of Holly's hand and patted it comfortingly as she looked at Chris. As much as she was willing to do what Holly asked, she was actually here for a reason and there was no point in wasting the opportunity.

"The financials on the guard Darren Ritchie should be back today right?" She asked Chris and waited for him to nod. She then quirked an eyebrow at Romi.

"Midnight, I remembered." He told her.

"Good." She told him before looking back at Chris. "Hopefully they'll follow that but it won't go anywhere." She told her old colleague.

Chris nodded. "Will he say anything?" He asked.

Gail shook her head. "He received an all-expenses paid trip one-way out of the country last night."

Holly wondered if that was code for dead but didn't really want to find out.

"Okay. That all?" Chris asked as he'd need to leave soon to make the start of shift.

Gail nodded her head then remembered and patted her jacket down before frowning as she didn't feel what she was looking for where she was expecting it.

"Here." Romi said tossing Chris a bulging envelope that clearly had money in it, several thousand dollars at least. "Don't spend it all at once." He told the officer with a grin.

"What he said." Gail smiled at Chris as he tucked the envelope away safely into his jacket.

Holly kept her mouth shut and followed their lead as everyone stood and shuffled out of the booth and headed for the exit after Romi dropped money down onto the table to pay their bill.

"Cheapskate." She muttered to Gail as they exited the café first.

Gail laughed as she spotted her car parked next to Chris' jeep and made her way over to it. "You think that was his own money?" She asked incredulously.

Holly frowned then looked back at the boys only to see them talking quietly to each other as they lagged behind by some distance.

Gail turned and leaned against her car as she knew it could be a while before Romi could pry himself away from Diaz. "Want on the payroll Doc?" She asked Holly, only half joking.

"I'm merely looking after a patient, no payment required." Holly replied.

Gail smirked at her as they stood together waiting. "What if I need assistance in the near future?"

Holly shrugged and played along. "You seem to know where I live, so you probably also have my number."

Now Gail's grin blossomed because the doctor was right, on both counts.

"So how long have you been watching me?" Holly asked Gail as the blonde turned her head and scowled at Romi as they heard him laughing with Chris.

"I admit nothing." She muttered offhandedly before calling to her friend over the top of the car. "Just kiss already and let's go!"

Chris shot her a confused look that made her question herself. She was headed to the hospital, why on earth was she in a hurry for that to happen?

Holly shook her head and inched closer to the blonde. It should have really bothered her to know that she had effectively been stalked by the woman in front of her for the last few weeks. But there was just something about Gail that she couldn't quite pin down yet and it was driving her crazy.

Gail rolled her eyes as Romi gave her the bird and turned back to Holly only to find her standing a lot closer than she had been the last time she had looked.

"You are insane, you know that right?" Holly asked as her eyes trailed all over Gail's face.

Gail shrugged and smiled endearingly at the brunette. "Some people might find me charming."

Holly guffed at that, wondering how stalking could be found charming in any way. But she had to acknowledge that she found the blonde very captivating, in a dangerous, twisted, totally bad for her health kind of way.

Without thinking she leaned over and pressed her lips to Gail's before pulling back and giving her a look. "I said insane." She repeated before opening the door and climbing past the passenger seat and into the back.

Stunned, Gail could only grin and shake her head. Then she noticed Chris and Romi staring slack jawed at her. She glared at the pair wondering if she _was_ suffering from some kind of brain injury, Holly was doing very strange things to her and she was smiling way too much considering her headache and her impending trip to the hospital.

"Just get in the damn car." She told Romi before getting into her seat. She aimed a glare at Holly and did her best to keep it there. "And you shut up." She warned as Romi slid in and started the car.

"Yes ma'am." Holly muttered from her seat.

And that's all it took for Gail's smile to come back.

Dammit!


End file.
